


Second Chance Soulmates

by betheflame



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, American Politics, BAMF Sarah Rogers, Childhood Sweethearts, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Getting Back Together, Hard of Hearing Steve Rogers, Hurt/Comfort, Immigration & Emigration, Irish Sarah Rogers, M/M, Mutual Pining, War Veteran Bucky Barnes, War Veteran Steve Rogers, Writing on Skin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:46:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25688296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: This is the story of two men who fought the ancient power of soulmates, and lost. The story of two men whose lives never worked quite right without the other. The story of two men who were… frankly… idiots for a very long time.This is the story of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers - how they fell in love, lost their way, and found each other again.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 192
Kudos: 308





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tonbotomoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonbotomoe/gifts).



> A commission from aspiring-academic for their generous donations to the Australian wildfire recovery funds. They requested a second chance political fic with Jane and Sharon and a side of Bucky/Nat with kiddos and here is what came out. I added soulmates, but they approved.
> 
> A few quick things up front:  
> \- This fic is about Steve and Tony being piney idiots, but it's set in the context of them fighting for the families caught up in the humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexico Border. I'll make sure to add links as necessary and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have as we dig into this. But - as I keep joking - know the highest fantasy element of this fic will be that the Supreme Court will do it's job, not that the boys will find their HEA. But they'll find that, too. DON'T WORRY. This *is* Flame Fic.  
> \- We're in a 2020 where Covid-19 never happened because I need the election cycle and 45 himself as elements here. And since this is HIGH fantasy, Ireland will win the Euros. LOL. 
> 
> Thanks to Marie for the beta, and to ko and Tina for the cheereading, and to the POTS server for always believing I can write these adorable idiots.

Once upon a time, there were two boys who loved each other very much. Their mothers were friends, which certainly helped, but they’d love each other no matter what. They swore over and over again that they’d bond as soon as they could - marking every landmark of growing up side by side.

And then, one day, a letter arrived in the mail for the boy with the brown hair and curls that flopped in his eyes. The letter changed everything for them both and the boy with the blond hair and growing muscles knew what he had to do.

He said goodbye to his truest love because it was best for both of them.

He burned off his soulmark so that no one would know, getting the scar tattooed over every time it showed back up, like a Hogwarts letter that wouldn’t stop finding him.

He watched his love’s meteoric rise through the scientific community and told himself it was all for the best, that it was better this way.

And then, one day, a question was posed at a press conference to the man with the blonde hair, military record, and the elected position that changed everything again.

This is the story of two men who fought the ancient power of soulmates, and lost. The story of two men whose lives never worked quite right without the other. The story of two men who were… frankly… idiots for a very long time.

This is the story of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers - how they fell in love, lost their way, and found each other again.

* * *

**Chapter One**

_April 2020_

“Congressman, can you sign this please?”

“Congressman, do you have time for the junior senator from Pennsylvania? She wants your next five minutes to talk about vouchers.”

“Congressman, you’re late.”

“Congressman, you have a vote.”

“Congressman, it’s an honor to meet you.”

Sometimes, when it was dark and silent outside, Steve could still hear their voices. He’d be completely alone and hear Darcy or Sam or Sharon or Shuri or one of the revolving cadre of interns demanding his attention. He’d known that being an elected representative would be exhausting and overwhelming and take all of him and had figured that after three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, it wouldn’t exactly be a hard transition.

But glory be, as his ma would say, he wasn’t prepared for how loud it would be. He loved each night where he could shut off the implant receptor for just a few minutes and allow himself utter emptiness of silence - but then he’d feel the vibration of his watch and know that his phone was ringing and he had to turn them back on.

The most recent auditory infiltration of his psyche was an exceptionally bubbly young woman with eyelashes so long they may begin to attack him at any minute. He was temporarily distracted by wondering how she could keep her eyes open when he reminded himself to focus on the person, not the package. _Sarah? Sally? Sariah. That’s it._

“Honestly, the pleasure is all mine, Sariah. How can I help?” He gestured for her to take a seat on the couch in his office and saw Shuri and Sharon take their places as well. They had a special place on the couch for visitors where Steve could read their lips carefully. His cochlear implant caught probably 80% of what they said perfectly, but some people were sloppy with their consonants.

“Well,” the young woman began, “I’m here to talk to you about a program I need support for in Brownsville. It’s a branch of an international non-profit with 30 years of providing mentoring, afterschool care, and jobs to neighborhood youth and I just got appointed as ED of the Brooklyn division.”

_Executive Director of a non-profit when she looks like she just graduated high school. She’s either incredible or an idiot._

“That sounds like something special, but what can I do? I’m afraid I am a terrible fundraiser, you can ask my campaign staff,” Steve said with a smile, which earned a snort from Shuri.

The girl turned towards the noise.

“He’s atrocious one-on-one,” Shuri grinned. “Put him on a stage and the dollars will roll in, but he’s talked more people out of giving to him than in.”

Sariah’s eyes sparkled. “That’s actually perfect, because what I need is a keynote speaker for our first fundraiser. 85% of the boys in my neighborhood are incarcerated or in the military. Your outspoken criticisms of both lend yourself to being a voice that people will listen to.”

“No one has money in Brownsville to support a non-profit,” Sharon interjected evenly.

“Which is why the fundraiser is in Bed-Stuy,” Sariah responded. “I’ve talked two community centers and four churches into ‘adopting’ us, as it were, while we get off the ground. I’ve done two years of a pilot program - the organization demands it - and I’ve brought all of our stats.”

She passed them over and Steve found himself impressed. A 12% increase in grades for active participants, as well as providing employment for fifteen high schoolers who served as mentors and helpers in the after-school homework clubs. _So, incredible then. Verdict is definitely that she’s incredible._

“What about the kids who aren’t good at school?” Steve asked, thinking of how hard he struggled with math and science in high school and how he wouldn’t have even graduated if not for…

 _Nope,_ Steve cut himself off. _Not thinking about him._

“We have coding clubs,” Sariah said, “as well as a small garden where we’re teaching kids how to grow and use vegetables. I’m hoping to eventually partner with a culinary training program and get kids who are too antsy for formal education straight into a kitchen.”

Steve looked over at Shuri. “Call Marcus? He’s gotta know someone.”

Sariah’s jaw dropped. “Marcus Samuelsson? You know him?”

Steve waved her off. “My best friend is obsessed with his jazz brunch and Bucky has a way of charming himself into a kitchen. Not a big deal, but I know Marcus would love to know what you’re doing.”

“Final question,” Shuri interjected, “because this is a deal breaker for Congressman Rogers, what is your policy on same-sex romantic soulmates?”

Sariah grinned and pulled out her phone. On the lockscreen was a photo of her, another woman, and a grinning toddler. “That’s Mags and our baby Juliet.”

“That’s a great answer,” Steve smiled at her. “You have a beautiful family.”

_Look, Ma, I even managed to say it without rubbing where the soulmark was. Aren’t you proud?_

The conversation continued. Steve pledged his support and told Sariah to work out the details with his staff about getting him to speak. He loved supporting organizations run by women of color that supported neighborhoods everyone else forgot. He was frequently an idiot about it, but he tried.

That meeting bled into the next - a meeting before the meeting for the Ways and Means committee - which bled into the next - and then all of a sudden it was after dinner and he was alone in his office.

His personal phone had been going off most of the day with alerts regarding the only thing that phone was programmed to alert him about - his soulmate, Tony.

“You mean former,” Steve muttered to himself.

_Buzzfeed: Wunderkind Stark does it again - this time with a portable water filtration unit that he says even 45 could operate_

_Fast Company: Stark Imagineering installs filtration units on every house in Flint, using it as a test case for other water problems_

_Scientific America: An Interview with Tony Stark, the Man who Changes the World Every Single Day_

Steve read each article with hungry eyes, always desperate for any piece of information he could get about Tony. He had noticed that Pepper was still a staple in Tony’s life - and her husband, James Rhodes, now seemed to be as well - but Tony had also added people named Bruce, Jane, and Thor. Darcy had casually mentioned that her college roommate had gone to work for SI and it took every single ounce of discipline that Steve had to not ask the roommate’s name.

Soulmarks usually showed up for people between the ages of 9 and 12 and could come in a wide variety of designs. Some were symbols that meant something to the family, some were scribbles in their soulmate’s handwriting. It was an ancient magic, soulmates, and there were lots of people who claimed to be experts in deciphering them along the lines of colloquial beliefs. If you got words, then your soulmate was a professional one and the two of you would accomplish great things. If you got a family symbol, the soulmate was romantic and you would build a great family dynasty together. If you got a generic mark, it was a platonic match. Only about 30% of people ever found their soulmatch and thousands of people throughout human history had accomplished great things, built family dynasties and enjoyed close platonic bonds without them - so there wasn’t much stock placed in the magic, publicly.

Privately? Steve had never met a human who didn’t crave to meet their mark match and most people he knew would trade anything to have the romantic mark as their one mark. It just wasn’t said out loud - people either didn’t want to jinx it, or they didn’t want to upset their current partner in whatever they were doing. The power of having the universe bless your bond was something no one snubbed their nose at. Well, almost no one.

And then there was the 2% of the population whose soulmarks faded or changed or disappeared completely and according to public record, that’s what happened to Congressman Steven Grant Rogers’, retired captain of the United States Marine Corps and first term congressman for New York’s 9th Congressional District.

What really happened was completely different.

Just as it always did when he thought about that, the inner part of his right bicep began to burn, as though the universe was reminding him that it was his choices that landed him in this life and not anything else.

He clicked on a video of Tony explaining the new filtration system - because evidently he was in the mood for masochism that evening - and found tears filling his eyes at how much joy was filling Tony’s.

“The real key is that we made it able to run on lots of kinds of power. So yes, it works faster when plugged into mains power, but it can run on four kinds of batteries and solar power as well. At a maximum, it can filtrate 20 gallons of water per minute and get that water down to CDC acceptable levels of all impurities,” VideoTony explained to the interviewer.

“That seems impossible,” the interviewer replied.

“Right, because that’s a word in Tony’s vocabulary,” Steve snorted.

“Well, impossible is just the word we use when science hasn’t caught up with imagination,” VideoTony grinned into the camera.

“Son of a bitch stole my line,” Steve muttered with a smile on his face.

The interview ambled on and Steve ended up staying in his office long into the night - lost in memories of the past and imaginations of what he could have had if 17-year-old Steve had made a different decision.

Around 10pm, his phone buzzed with an incoming text.

_WhatsApp: Bucky Barnes_

_Bucky: Pal, you were supposed to be here twenty mins ago, but your phone is still pinging at your office._

_Bucky: You already failed on the Boundary Challenge? It’s Day 3._

_Bucky: I’ll take my payment in brand new bills, please, fresh from the mint._

_Bucky: You fancy politicos can arrange that kind of thing, right?_

Steve rolled his eyes. He’d met Bucky on the first day of basic training, when they were both skinny idiots with ideals about patriotism and extensive experience playing Call of Duty that they thought would translate to the battlefield.

Spoiler alert: it did not.

Steve was doing his absolute best to ignore how miserable he was after breaking up with Tony, and Bucky was doing his absolute best to flirt his way through every female CO they had because his soulmate hadn’t shown up yet and he had an authority kink a mile wide. They bonded the way men had through time immemorial - complaining about their love lives over beers and pretending it was absolutely about something else and that they were fine.

Steve had been there when Bucky found that soulmate and Bucky had been there when Steve’s focused discipline into bench pressing his problems turned him into a walking poster boy for the U.S. military industrial complex. Bucky and Nat, the aforementioned soulmate, who also happened to be their CO, were Steve’s first campaign staff when he ran for city council and supported his political career every step of the way.

Steve, in turn, served as favorite uncle to Bucky and Nat’s kids, as well as godfather and legal guardian. Nat volunteered at the constituency office, and the whole Barnes family doorstepped for Steve for whatever he was running for.

Bucky and Nat had gotten it in their head recently that Steve was on the verge of burnout. They claimed the 90-hour weeks weren’t sustainable - he simply responded that they were normal for first term Congresspeople to which they each snorted - and had challenged him to leave the office by 8pm for three nights in a row.

_Steve: I didn’t fail, I just didn’t start yet._

_Bucky: So you’re telling me that yesterday, when you told me you were on your sofa watching Nailed It, you were actually on your office sofa and you failed to clarify because you think i’m stupid?_

_Steve: Well, you did fall for it_

_Bucky: I swear to christ_

_Steve: I got caught up in a thing_

_Bucky: A time sensitive thing?_

_Bucky: A thing where if you don’t attend to it immediately little old ladies and kittens will be in peril?_

_Steve: A thing, James. I got caught up in a thing that is none of your business._

_Bucky: oh, pal, you staring at videos of Stark again?_

Two years into their brotherhood, and deep in the Emerald City that was the U.S. compound in Baghdad, Steve had stumbled on a photo of Tony making out with a boy that looked shockingly like Steve at a club. Johnny Storm was the kid’s name and evidently he was some sort of genius with thermonuclear physics and Steve fell apart.

Bucky had found him in the Baghdad Country Club, drunk off his ass and crying about his lost soulmate. The truth - or, at least 90% of it - came tumbling out of Steve and Bucky had responded by simply listening and then getting Steve home safely. Bucky saw the scar of the burned off soulmark and simply remarked that he had no idea that when your soulmark disappeared, it actually was scorched off your skin. Steve played dumb and simply nodded.

If Steve had never entered politics, the list of who knew about him and Tony may have remained at just Bucky (and then Nat) and Steve’s mother. But then he decided to become a public servant and…

Keeping his personal pledge to never contact Tony got tougher and tougher by the day.

_Steve: I’m just really proud of him._

_Bucky: You know, it’s not like there’s actual science on why soulmarks disappear. Maybe you guys are allowed to be together and just not soulmates? I mean, I doubt the universe will collapse if you get back together with your ex_

_Bucky: But you could check with him anyway, he seems like he’d know_

_Steve: He very publicly hates me, you forget_

_Bucky: Oh, yeah. Wrinkle in the plan._

_Bucky: Anyway, go home._

_Bucky: Or I’m going to start withholding Winnie privileges._

_Steve: You wouldn’t dare_

_Bucky: You start leaving the office before fucking midnight on the reg or I’m not letting you hold the baby. You’re so tired, Steven, what if you drop her? I mean, this is really just about my daughter’s safety._

_Steve: you’re a dick_

_Bucky: Proudly since 1991, pal._

_Bucky: Now go home_

Steve blinked a few times and realized that his eyes were actually quite heavy and that if he slept in the office again and Shuri found him, there would be hell to pay.

 _It’s not like pining is location sensitive,_ he remarked to himself. _I’ve been doing it internationally for ten years, I’m sure I can continue to do so from my bed._

* * *

“Congressman?” Sharon’s voice cut through his reverie three days later.

“Yeah, Sharon?”

“Are you ready for the presser?” She signed.

“Of course,” Steve smiled as he signed back, but he knew it didn’t reach his eyes. He’d been up the entire night before watching videos of Tony for the fifth time that month. He was _exhausted_.

“Marta Rosenberg has registered.” Sharon’s hands moved rapidly but they didn’t distract Steve from the look of concern on her face.

Steve blanched. Marta Rosenberg wrote for B*tch Media and had it out for him. He and his staff weren’t sure if it was because he beat her favored candidate in the primary or because he was a white male and she was publicly over them being in power, but her questions were always pointed and usually required him to have references to PhD theses in front of him.

“Today is just the basic monthly press briefing,” Steve said out loud, making sure to keep his voice calm. “And she knows that I welcome accountability from my constituents.”

Switching back and forth between signing and speaking was normal for them, but Steve knew Sharon hated having long conversations in ASL. She’d learned it for him - her fourth language after English, French, and Italian - and she still felt clumsy sometimes.

Sharon’s gaze pierced him. “Defer to Sam if she backs you in a corner, or me, or just tell her one of us will get back to you. Remember how Abernathy trained you.”

Steve waved her off and continued to make notes before heading down to the conference room he used for these events. It wasn’t common for people in his position to hold monthly briefings, but it was something he felt passionate about. He was also fierce about holding Town Hall meetings each month back in the district so that he could hear what people were upset about - since no one ever talked to politicians when things were going well - and to make sure everyone felt heard.

He wasn’t expecting anything significant this month - he’d already addressed a sanitation department issue and responded to the latest congressional sex scandal by responding that he was exceptionally gay and therefore could guarantee the safety of his female staffers and also exceptionally afraid of his mother and therefore could guarantee the safety of all of his staffers (a joke that landed well with Millennials and Gen-X, less so with Gen-Z and Boomers) - and so his prep was mostly casual.

And then, fifteen minutes into the briefing, Marta raised her hand.

“Congressman, you ran on a platform of immigration reform, correct?”

Steve had no idea where this was going but he didn’t like it. “One of the many planks, yes.”

“And yet we face a crisis in this country where we have essentially erected concentration camps along our southern border and you have done nothing about it. How are your constituents supposed to trust that this is a priority for you when people legally seeking asylum are being treated like cattle on your watch?”

The _correct_ answer - not just because it would have played great on YouTube, but because it was the _correct_ answer - would have been for Steve to nod and say, “Marta, thank you for calling me on that. I have been too slow to respond to the crisis at the border and have let my senior colleagues take the lead on our response. With your reminder, I’m going to immediately gather the experts I know and find out how I can best be involved.”

And yet…

“Well, Marta,” Steve replied, letting just a little too much annoyance sneak into his voice at the tone of her question, “I actually have been involved in a response at the border and -”

“Children are dying of starvation and dehydration,” Marta interrupted. “Parents are separated from children and we are keeping children in cages, Congressman Rogers, and you told us that when we voted for you, we voted for a candidate who knew how complicated our country could be but also our international responsibility and I’m just curious when you’ve abdicated that 2nd half.”

“Well, I-”

“Children are in _cages_ , Congressman, what are you going to do?”

He could see Sam and Sharon stepping up to the microphone to save him, but it was too late. The sentence was barreling out of his mouth before he could stop it.

“Stark Imagineering will provide their new filtration systems to all the camps as a first step and then I’m going to get the kids out of the cages.”

“How-”

“Marta, thanks, but the Congressman has another meeting,” Sam said as he pushed Steve out of the way of the microphone. “Sharon or I will be happy to follow up with anyone who didn’t get to ask their question.”

Steve didn’t remember how he got from the conference room back to his office. He had only a vague memory of knowing that he’d just done one of the stupidest things he could have done - publicly committed to something without doing any due diligence to see if it would happen after getting defensive and implying that he was maybe even okay with children being kept in cages.

But by the time he was sitting behind his desk again, he knew Sam and Sharon and Shuri were furious with him and Darcy had already demanded ten minutes so she could answer questions at the constituency office, and that his day was only going to get worse.

And then, one of the interns buzzed his office phone.

“Congressman? I have Tony Stark on line one? He says you may not remember him, but he was your soulmate and evidently now your business partner and maybe you should hash out some details?”

Steve laughed without humor. That line was so quintessentially Tony that he knew it was a direct quote.

“He also said something about ducks?”

Steve felt like someone hit him in the solar plexus. Of course Tony would invoke Gordon Bombay at a time like this. It was effective to prove who he was, though, Steve would give him that. “Put him through, Kelly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Few quick things because I always add translations in my political fics:  
> \- "Imagineering" is the word Disney uses for it's engineers, so this blatant thievery.  
> \- Brownsville is the most under resourced neighborhood in Brooklyn, but both colloquial knowledge and census data. Bed-Stuy is... not.  
> \- That non-profit does exist and is in cities around the world. If you want to know more, I'm happy to gush.  
> \- "CO" is Commanding Officer, so yes, Nat outranks them both and no, she never lets them forget that.  
> \- "Doorstepping" is the practice of literally knocking on doors to campaign for a candidate. Research shows it's the most effective method of guaranteeing poll turn out.  
> \- Baghdad Country Club was the only bar in U.S. territory for most of the concentrated occupation. I have heard *stories*.  
> \- Gordon Bombay is the head coach from the classic film "The Mighty Ducks" and yes that will come up again.
> 
> I think that's it for this chapter - the gang and I will see you next week for Tony's reaction to Steve's outburst.


	2. Chapter 2

“BRUCE,” Tony roared over the sound of multiple processors whirring noisily. He saw his engineering partner pop his head over a divider like a meerkat out of hole.

“WHAT?”

“THE MICROPROCESSOR IS STALLING ON MARK SEVEN.”

“OHMYGOD CAN YOU IDIOTS JUST SHUT THE NOISE OFF INSTEAD OF COMPETING WITH IT?!

That last bit came from their newest colleague, Dr. Jane Foster, who had several advanced degrees in epidemiology. Tony had poached her from Ventana to start the vaccine program at Stark Imagineering - the company he’d started when he was 17 and in such deep heartbreak that he thought he might actually die. SI saved him, he usually quipped to friends, and he used it to save the world.

“SORRY JANE, JARVIS IS RUNNING THE -”

“THEN LEAVE THE ROOM,” was her roar of response and Tony indicated for Bruce to follow him into the kitchen of the lab.

When they were both in the room, Tony grabbed two cans of Red Bull out of the fridge and tossed one to Bruce. In their line of work the question wasn’t if you wanted caffeine, it was ‘how much do you need to function?’

“You were saying there’s an issue on Mark Seven?” Bruce asked, right before he cracked the can and drained it in one gulp.

 _Our livers are probably their own science experiments_ , Tony mused. “Yeah, there’s a… hiccup in the processes when I run it at .02%”

“A hiccup.”

“It’s the only word I can use to describe it.”

Bruce didn’t look amused. “‘Hiccup’ isn’t a diagnostic word.”

“It’s a spasm of the diaphragm,” Tony replied, “so we just gotta find out why Mark Seven has a diaphragm and why it’s spasming.”

“You know,” Bruce said evenly, “this would go a lot smoother if you would let me hire-”

“No.”

“Reed knows how to test machinery and processes, Anthony,” Bruce said, with the tone that communicated he felt he was talking to a toddler.

Tony set his jaw and glared at Bruce. “Reed Richards is a hack, Bruce, and I don’t want him anywhere near my shit.”

“Our shit,” Bruce said.

“Our shit, sorry,” Tony grumbled.

“Tony, he won a scholarship over you our freshman year at MIT. That was basically a decade ago, can you possibly just move on? He’s an expert in security technology and that involves the actual mainframe construction, plus he’s married to my sister so we’ll get a friends and family rate.” Bruce tossed the empty can into the trash, where it sailed in fluidly. “Three points. Anyway, I don’t do wires, you can’t make it stop malfunctioning, and Reed is a complete pain in the ass but a good guy, which also happens to describe someone else I know.”

The pair starred each other down for a few beats before Tony sighed. “Fine, but he’s a contractor and I’m not giving him benefits.”

“Got it,” Bruce said.

“He reports to us,” Tony said, “make sure he understands that he reports to _you_ and he reports to _me_ and we all report to Pepper so I don’t want any grandstanding. He reports to you, and he reports to me.”

Bruce snorted before he backed out of the kitchen and left Tony alone. “Ten years, Tones. Consider therapy, will you?”

 _Been there, done that, cupcake,_ Tony thought. _Because when you’re part of the 2% of the population who loses their soulmate because their mark disappears, it fucks you up pretty good and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the taste of Steve Rogers outta my mouth._

Still couldn’t.

Not after twenty years of trying, twenty years of different partners and various liquors and a lot of drugs and workshop binges fueled by stale pizza and disgusting coffee - when Tony closed his eyes, he could still remember what Steve tasted like. He could remember how his skin felt alive whenever they were near each other, like small zaps of electricity that were both dangerous and comforting.

Nothing like what his skin felt like now, the searing pain as the words revealed themselves. His mark had never been words before, but on the same day that Steve took his oath of office, that oath appeared in Steve’s handwriting on Tony’s inner left thigh. The words hadn’t stopped coming since then and the pain hadn’t gotten any better.

Tony had simply gotten more adept at hiding them.

Just as he’d gotten more adept at hiding his love for Steve over the years. The only people who knew he still carried a candle for his soulmate were Pepper and Rhodey. The three shared a soulmark of their own, of sorts - matching tattoos they’d all gotten a year after Steve left.

_“It’s a Trinity Knot,” Pepper whispered as she slid the design across the table. “We thought we could all get them on our right hips.”_

_“Why?” Tony’s voice was a rasp from hours and hours of crying._

_“Because we’re your fucking soulmates, too,” Rhodey snapped and Tony saw Pepper shoot him a look. “Sorry, that anger isn’t at you.”_

_“I know, sugarplum,” Tony said wearily. “I know you hate him.”_

_“It’s not his fault the mark faded,” Pepper said. She’d made that same argument over and over since Steve left. “He had no control over that.”_

_“He did have control over if he left or not,” Rhodey replied. “They could have worked something out.”_

_“Guys,” Tony said, “do I need to be here for this?”_

_The couple sighed simultaneously and Tony fought tears again. He’d never have what they had, and he’d had it. He knew that magic, that rightness, he knew, and now…_

_“We thought a mark of our own might feel…” Pepper trailed off._

_“Right,” Rhodey supplied. “We are your soulmates as much as he was-”_

_“Is. He is my soulmate, even if he doesn’t want to be,” Tony interjected and waited for Rhodey to fight him. “But you two are right - platonic world changing soulmates, so let’s add some words around the knot.”_

_“Idile,” Rhodey said. “It’s Yoruba for ‘family’.”_

_Tony, who’d been with Rhodey the day that he opened the Ancestry.com envelope to find out that his family were enslaved people kidnapped from Benin at the height of the slave trade, knew how significant that language choice was. He nodded once. “Make the appointment.”_

Of all the places Steve’s words had appeared over the past fifteen months, they’d never touched his right hip.

Rhodey and Pepper didn’t know about the words. There were some slight benefits to having your best friends live on the other side of the country and having your relationship largely dictated by video chat and the ability to keep secrets was one of them. He had no idea what the words symbolized and was afraid to hope for what they could.

He rubbed the latest appearance absently - a scroll of Steve’s laziest handwriting around his forearm. From what Tony could decipher, it was a commitment to appear at a keynote for a nonprofit that focused on education and mentoring.

“If you could add art and maybe dogs to that, you’d have Steve Rogers Bingo,” Tony muttered to himself as he grabbed a second can of Red Bull and wandered back out to his workbench - careful to tug down his sleeve and cover the text. People didn’t get two soulmarks and they absolutely didn’t get them for the same person.

Something was wrong and Tony had a sinking feeling the only person on the planet who could help him solve the puzzle was the very last person he’d ever ask to.

* * *

_New York Times: Congressman Rogers (D-NY) Announces Partnership with Stark Imagineering_

_Buzzfeed: Someone forget to tell us the soulmates are back together?_

_WIRED: Stark Imagineering to Provide Filtration Systems to Border Camps. Does the White House know?_

“Tony?”

MJ, his current intern/budding genius, was standing at the entrance to his makeshift office, with a look on her face that probably matched his own. The filtration systems were her project. Tony was sure she was feeling particularly betrayed right now.

“I have no idea, MJ,” Tony said, answering her unasked question. “I have literally no idea.”

“I don’t know how to replicate it that many times yet,” MJ said, her breathing shifting into panicked wheezing. “I can’t make it big enough and I know you told the investors, but I-”

“Hey,” he leapt up and led her to a spare chair. “Breathe with me, kiddo.”

When she had gotten her breath back, he spoke. “I have no idea what Rogers just pulled, but I can’t imagine that the _Times_ and _Wired_ both got it wrong, so something’s afoot and I’ll get to the bottom of it. I’ll shift all of us to the replication phase and we’ll figure it out together, okay? You did the hardest parts, the team can pick up the rest.”

She nodded. “He’s your old soulmate, right? Congressman Rogers?”

 _He’s my current one, too._ “Yup,” Tony confirmed, smiling as naturally as he could manage. “Grew up together, basically fused at the hip. Our mothers were best friends so I think we were their dream come true.”

“What happened?”

He looked at her. “It’s on Wikipedia, MJ.”

“So is your arrest record,” she retorted, “and I wanted the story of that from you, too.”

“Touché,” he admitted. “Well, you know some of it, I’m sure. I’m actually two years younger than him but it never seemed to matter. He was really sick when we were growing up, so indoor activities were our favorites. Who cared if I was four and he was six when all we really did was watch cartoons, you know?”

“Sick with what?”

“Oh, name it and Steve was sick with it,” Tony laughed. “His hearing was pretty bad then, but not enough to fail the enlistment test, and then there was the thing they thought was leukemia but wasn’t and was instead some sort of completely rare disorder that… anyway. He was really sick and then some miracle researcher in a lab in Ottawa figured out how to locate the exact thing that was causing his problems and he started to get better. He’s why I wanted to start SI, really, when I first started dreaming of it when I was 12. I wanted a place for people to dream of futures and then help create them.”

“When did you know you were soulmates?” MJ asked quietly.

“Well, my mark showed up when I was born, which is so rare my parents thought something was wrong,” Tony laughed. “Steve’s appeared on his thirteenth birthday.” He touched the inner part of his right arm, just above his bicep, and was thankful it was considered taboo to ask people to see their soulmark because he hadn’t shown anyone in so long.

“And then, what happened?”

“We knew he was enlisting,” Tony responded. “He’d passed the physical and wanted to be a Marine so badly. His father was one and that’s all he knew. School was hard because of all the sickness when he was a kid… Anyway, we knew he was enlisting, but I was applying all over the place. We weren’t going to get married until after I graduated at least - we had a lot of fights about military housing and how often I’d have to move and if I even wanted to do that, but we were so young we just assumed we’d figure it all out. About a week after I got my letter for early acceptance at MIT, he called me crying that something was wrong.”

Tony took a breath in through his teeth. Ten years and it could have been yesterday. “He drove over to me immediately to show me a giant, infected, terrible scar where his mark once was. The universe literally scorched me from his skin. If that wasn’t a sign we weren’t supposed to be together… So, yeah, that’s what happened.”

“But you still have yours?”

Tony nodded.

“And now you’re in business together?”

“That is the $64,000 question, isn’t it,” Tony smiled, but knew it was tight. “We haven’t talked in a while.”

“What’s a while?”

Tony was quiet and MJ gasped. “Have you seriously not spoken to him since that night? Wasn’t that like ninety years ago?”

“Hey. I’m 26, whippersnapper, so it was actually ten years, give or take,” Tony commented. ”I was pretty bored in high school anyway, so finishing out the year at home wasn’t hard to wrangle. We have a lot of mutual friends and his mom is still… but no.” _And every time I prep myself to call because I’m lonely or brave, meaning I’m very, very drunk, my mark will burn so badly that the universe obviously doesn’t want us to connect._

“Jane said you hate him and we can’t talk about him,” MJ said. There were times Tony was incredibly grateful that MJ was on the spectrum and spoke exactly what was on her mind. The verbal games of polite society were exhausting and today it would have probably broken him.

“I don’t hate him,” Tony corrected. “I just don’t care. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You told Bruce that if anyone mentioned his name in the workshop, you’d program JARVIS to zap them.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Tony said with a chuckle. “That’s because when he ran for Congress, we had people nearly crawling all over the place trying to get my opinion or a soundbite or something and it got tiresome saying I had no comment.”

MJ snorted inelegantly. “You had no comment? You comment on everything.”

 _I had no comment because my comment would basically be the human equivalent of dog slobber - I was so excited._ “I had no comment.”

MJ let the statement hang between them - which Tony knew she didn’t believe for a second but somehow picked up that he wasn’t going to say anything else - before she rubbed her hands on her thighs and stood back up.

“Boss Man,” MJ said, “I believe in you.”

He nodded and winked. “Of course you do, I’m Tony Stark.”

She snorted. “I’ll leave you to it.”

He stared at the phone for several minutes after she left before he opened the browser on his computer and googled “Congressman Steve Rogers Washington Office.”

He dialed the number - knowing that with about three text messages to Pepper, he’d have Steve’s cell if he wanted it - and waited through four rings before a chipper voice said, “Congressman Rogers’ office, please hold.”

He sat through a few seconds of some sort of instrumental music before the chipper voice returned. “I apologize for the delay, the Congressman’s press conference has generated some buzz. My name is Kelly, how can I help you?”

Tony snorted before he could help himself. “I’m not surprised, Kelly, since that’s exactly what I’m calling about. My name is Tony Stark. He may not remember me, but I was his soulmate and evidently now his business partner and maybe we should hash out some details? And if he doesn’t believe you that it’s me, tell him ‘ducks fly together’.”

The girl sounded confused when she told him to hold - not that Tony blamed her - and he focused on his breathing in case the next voice he heard was...

_“Tony, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”_

Tony’s stomach dropped to his toes. Videos of Steve’s voice had nothing on the power of it focused on him. All of a sudden, he was sixteen again and they were in the Rogers’ backyard right after his mother’s funeral and Steve’s voice was the only thing tethering him to reality. It was slightly different than it had been growing up, but Tony knew that. Everyone knew that. Steve had built a lot of his campaign around the fact that he lost his hearing in Afghanistan and came home to a VA woefully understaffed and far too under resourced to help him navigate life with an implant.

“It’s just a helluva way to tell me you like my fancy new toy, Congressman,” Tony replied, careful to keep ‘Steve’ out of it not because Tony had respect for the office or anything, but because he might start crying if the name passed his lips.

On the other end of the phone, Steve sighed. _“I know. Marta just knows the buttons to push to make me stop being professional. I’m sorry.”_

“Children in cages is a pretty effective mantra,” Tony replied evenly. “But you committed both of us to solving it, so what’s the plan here, Cap?”

_Oh, that was a mistake. I should not have called him that. I should not have called him that._

Tony’s instinct was confirmed when silence met him on the other end of the line. After a few too many beats, Steve spoke in a slightly strangled voice. _“I don’t actually have one. If you wouldn't take my call, I was planning on resigning.”_

Tony snorted. “That feels drastic and I’d hate to have you unemployed. Job hunting is such a bitch.”

_“I can come to California this weekend, if you want to meet in person. I have a vote on Friday morning, but then I can get out of town.”_

Tony was momentarily stunned that Steve knew he lived in Malibu. _Sarah must have told him in passing. I’m sure he doesn’t ask her about me or anything_. “Nah, I’ll come there. I haven’t seen Rhodey and Pep in person in a minute, so it’ll be good. Can you clear your schedule a bit tomorrow?”

 _“I have a ribbon cutting tomorrow morning in Brooklyn, actually_ ,” Steve replied. “ _But I’ll be back in D.C. by three, probably, would that work?_ ”

“You’re going all the way to Brooklyn for a ribbon cutting?”

_“There’s a library opening in Ma’s neighborhood and it’s their first one since before World War II. She’s a little enthusiastic.”_

Tony could basically hear the blush in Steve’s voice and the deep love of both his mother and neighborhood. If he was capable of falling in love with Steve again - which he wasn’t, since he’d technically never stopped loving him in the first place - that would have tipped him over the edge.

“Three is fine,” Tony replied.

_“Great, I’m going to transfer you to my head admin, her name is Meghan, and she’ll make sure you have all the directions and clearances -”_

“I have NSA clearance, Steve,” Tony interrupted quietly.

There was a beat. _“Of course you do. Anyway, she’ll make sure everything is set. See you tomorrow, Tony.”_

There were three clicks before a woman’s voice answered and introduced herself. Tony and Meghan worked out some of the logistics of how he’d get to Steve’s office and then he hung up the phone.

And then he noticed something.

For the first time in fifteen months, the marks didn’t hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next week when everyone who loves these idiots finds out about their plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter marks where we get into some stats and such that I don't expect any of you to know but I know some of you might want to do more research, so I'll be providing links. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who is being so kind as I build this world for y'all. I'm having the absolute time of my life writing this and your love is making me write faster.

_WhatsApp: RhoPepTo_

_Pepper: I still say that name sounds like a date rape drug._

_Pepper: But the more important matter is that we all just saw that press conference and you haven’t been answering your phone._

_Pepper: So I need to know what level of crisis we’re at. Is this Paris in 2015? Or Sydney in 2014?_

_Rhodey: Or St. Petersburg in 2011?_

_Pepper: Tony, I just need to know how long I have to get a sitter for the kids._

_Tony: None at all. I’m filling up the company jet now, coming to you._

_Pepper: You’re coming to D.C._

_Pepper: You loathe D.C._

_Pepper: You tell us all the time that we’ve become swamp creatures and we’re lucky you still love us._

_Pepper: Why are you coming to D.C.?_

_Rhodey: No, Tony. This is a bad idea._

_Rhodey: TONY. THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA._

_Tony: The jerk gave MJ a panic attack, that tech is nowhere near ready for that level of commercial use, and I can be a good boss and protect her._

_Tony: I haven’t seen him in, what, a decade? I’m sure the feelings have faded more than I think they have. I’ll be fine._

_Tony: Taking off now._

Rhodey looked up at his wife and saw a frown carved into her face as she stared at her phone. “Not that I don’t love seeing Tony-”

“But there are at least seven things he’s not telling us,” Pepper interrupted. “And that means I can’t prep for the fallout.”

“There is something to be said for the fact that he is a grown man,” Rhodey said, which earned him a snort from Pepper.

“Please, James,” she replied, “he’s…”

“He’s not the broken little boy you moved to Cambridge right after his break up, Pep,” Rhodey said gently. “He got his shit together and he’s made choices since then. If he says he’s fine, then we have to trust him.”

Pepper worried her bottom lip. “Then we trust him.”

* * *

When Stark Imagineering had gone public, Tony was 21 years old. Four years worth of grind had paid off and he was on the cover of nearly every magazine that had to do with business or tech on the planet. He became a household name and had everything he could ever want at his fingertips.

He figured three things out really quickly: the thing he wanted most was not and would never be at his fingertips, he needed someone to help him manage his money, and a private plane would not be the worst investment.

The first was why he spent his 23rd birthday in rehab in a remote mountain village in Canada. The second came in the form of a brilliant woman named Beth who seemed to have a knack for taking fledgling millionaires under her belt. He learned things like “impact investing” and trusts and how to be philanthropic without making someone pay taxes on his gift. He learned what custom tailored suits looked like and how he could write off security systems for tax purposes - even ones he built himself.

The third was the true godsend. After everything with Steve, Tony was hesitant to place his heart or life in the hands of anyone. After his license got taken away at 22 (a very vivid reminder that recreational oxy use and the operation of motor vehicles didn’t mix), Pepper and Rhodey insisted that he hire a driver and that said driver get his pilot’s license as well. Happy Hogan became Tony’s bodyman and brother - shuttling him wherever he needed to go. Most of the time, Tony sat in the cockpit with Happy as co-pilot and the ride was spent brainstorming ideas into the server he installed. Rarely was anyone else allowed on flights with him - except when someone at SI demanded it happen.

As far as Tony was concerned, SI was still this thing he ran out of an abandoned airplane hangar on the outskirts of Malibu that employed about ten people and he knew them all. In reality, it was a multi-national of which Tony was President and Head of R&D that employed about fourteen hundred people and Tony still really only knew ten of them.

_“This is getting too big too fast for you to keep doing this on your own,” Pepper chided Tony._

_“So come run it for me,” Tony replied._

_Pepper arched her eyebrows. “I do not care for California. Murder on my skin.”_

_“Fine, then I’ll move HQ to somewhere that’s better for your skin,” Tony said with a defeated tone. “I don’t want new people.”_

_“Well, sucks for you, because your staggering genius is going to require quite a support system.”_

_He was quiet for a few minutes before he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her._

_“What’s this?”_

_“The plan for SI that Steve and I drew up years ago,” Tony said. “He was going to take care of the people and I’d take care of the science and we were going to change the world.”_

_“Well, while he’s busy fighting a war we shouldn’t be in and you can’t really work out the soulmark thing, why don’t you do it anyway?”_

_Tony was silent. He worried his bottom lip and couldn’t decide if he wanted Pepper to read his mind or if he was petrified if she did._

_“Anthony.”_

_“Pep-”_

_“How much are you holding yourself back because your parents are kinda the worst?”_

_Tony was quiet. “They’re not the worst, Pep, they’re just... “_

_“I know they got married because your mom was pregnant,” Pepper supplied, “and I know they thought that would give them a soulbond, but it didn’t, did it?”_

_Tony shook his head._

_“So they’re just, what, pretending?”_

_Tony nodded. “That’s why they don’t want me to get too famous or whatever the excuse is this week - they’re afraid if people will poke into our history they’ll see that we’re soulmate defective.”_

_Pepper opened her mouth as though she was going to contradict his use of that word, but he started speaking instead._

_“Pep, it’s fine, this will all burn out soon enough and I can-”_

_“I love you with my whole heart, you absolute muppet, and I’m not going to let this wonderful thing fall on its face because you can’t get out of your own way,” Pepper interrupted. “So I’m going to call Rhodey’s cousin Carol and see if she’d be up for the job. From what Rhodey says, she’s itchy to leave Lehman, so might be a good time.”_

Which is how Tony got a former Air Force captain and financial wizard working as his CEO. Or business manager, since she’d never bothered to update her business cards. Carol handled literally everything but R&D - hiring, firing, production, supply chain, accounting, and departments Tony wasn’t even sure they had - without seemingly breaking a sweat. Her soulmate and wife Maria was a force as well and Tony’s meetings with Carol were the only piece of business he ever looked forward to.

Speaking of…

“Shit,” he said out loud and Happy looked over from his seat in the cockpit. “You okay for a few minutes? I never actually called Carol.”

Happy snorted and nodded. “You got it, Boss.”

Tony went to the main cabin of the plane. “Jarvis?”

His AI responded. “Yes, Sir?”

“Can you get Carol on the phone?”

“She’s been requesting a call for several hours, Sir,” Jarvis replied and within seconds, Carol’s voice flooded the cabin.

“ _Not that I don’t love the idea of clean water to migrants_ ,” she opened, “ _but I’m assuming Congressman Blondie jumped the gun on this partnership_?”

Tony sighed. “A little, yeah.”

_“Tony, we talked about this. If you’re even in the beginning stages of something with someone, I need to know.”_

“You found out the same time I did,” Tony reported.

There were a few beats of silence and Tony thought the connection was lost. “Carol?”

_“I’m just processing that your former soulmate went on national television and kinda blackmailed us into a partnership.”_

Tony laughed. “He did, didn’t he.”

_“I’ll get legal -”_

He cut her off. “I’m on the plane to meet him now. That’s why I’m calling.”

_“I should be there,”_ Carol replied. _“When are you meeting with him?”_

“Tomorrow at 3pm at his office on the Hill,” Tony replied.

He heard Carol take a deep breath and then she started to list out things they’d need to cover so fast that he was sure she’d set Jarvis to ‘dictation mode’. He let her talk things out for a few minutes before he finally interrupted.

“Hey Carol?”

_“Yeah, Tony?”_

“We’re doing this no matter how hard it is.”

_“Are you, for the first time in our history, pulling rank?”_

Tony could hear the smile in her voice. “Yes.”

_“So, we’re going to get clean water to the border.”_

“We do that, and I’ll make him get the families back together,” Tony said with a sureness he did not feel.

_“We have the easier job.”_

“But he doesn’t know that,” Tony laughed. “Tech has always scared him.”

_“You sure? How long has it been since you spoke to him?”_

_Nine years, four months, and seventeen days._ “About a decade, give or take.”

_“Sure,”_ Carol replied. _“I’ll believe you don’t know the time down to the minute if you’ll pretend you didn’t accidentally overhear what we’re getting Monica for her birthday.”_

“Deal,” Tony laughed.

* * *

“And he’ll be waiting for us when we get back to D.C.?” Sharon said slowly from her seat in the business class compartment on the Acela that was speeding Team Rogers back to the capital.

“I think Meghan told him to come at three,” Steve replied, flipping through a briefing book someone had put together for him on food insecurity in his district. _Brooklyn as a borough has been designated as a food desert by data science company[Esri](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b1d93b20104e4f75b19588905eee6c11#:~:text=Harlem%2C%20the%20South%20Bronx%2C%20and,of%20fresh%20and%20nutritious%20food.). This means that there is limited access to fresh foods for the majority of citizens and over 70% of people have to rely on corner stores and bodegas for their grocery shop. Meals for the average family come from fast food establishments and -_

“Steven.” Sharon snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention.

“Sorry,” Steve shook his head and signed an apology as well. “Tony, 3pm. Just an informational meeting so we can all figure out where his tech is and how to partner together.”

“So we’re definitely partnering,” Shuri clarified. “I don’t have to walk something back?”

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re definitely partnering,” Steve replied emphatically. “His tech-”

Shuri held up a hand. “His tech will work.”

Shuri Obengna had appeared in his campaign office somewhere around the second month of his run for New York City Council, back in 2014. She came equipped with an undergraduate in electrical engineering that she said bored her, a masters in international economic policy from the London School of Economics, and on the heels of what she termed as a ‘terrible breakup’ that she wanted a distraction from. A dual citizen through her parents, she held both Kenyan and American citizenship and told Steve she rarely noticed a difference in how corrupt their political systems were.

_“I know wires and systems,” she said confidently over a piece of pie at Lulu’s around the corner from his storefront headquarters. “I don’t understand people, not really, but I get how they behave in large groups. You need me.”_

_“And why is that?”_

_“Because you’re running an Obama style campaign as a white man in Brooklyn, banking on your charisma and sob story about how you lost your hearing, which I’m sure sucks, but it can’t suck as much as being a black man in this country,” Shuri replied calmly. “I’ve applied for a masters in polysci at NYU, so I can give you about 30 hours a week and you need me. You got too many white people on this thing, Rogers.”_

_Steve flipped through the faces he’d hired so far. She wasn’t wrong - the only person of color was his campaign manager Sam. “I don’t hire anyone who doesn’t believe in the borough.”_

_“Well, good news for you, you’re running in an incredibly diverse constituency and I’ve been living here for two years. I know community activists who want your ear, but don’t know if they’re welcome.”_

_“They’re welcome,” Steve said._

_“Then you better tell them,” Shuri replied with an eyebrow raised._

_“How?”_

_“Start showing up in places where English isn’t spoken,” Shuri replied. “There’s a Haitian party this weekend. I’m going and you are too.”_

Since that piece of pie, Steve looked to Shuri to make sure there were the right voices at the table, that he was listening to people he’d accidentally forgotten, and that he showed up in all the places that mattered. When ‘City Councilman’ turned into ‘U.S. Representative’, she’d responded by stepping up her efforts and on the night he won the seat, she simply blinked at him. “Good job, Rogers. You got them on hope, now earn their trust.”

“Dusting off that old undergrad degree, S?” He smiled at her.

“I may have looked at the specs,” Shuri replied.

Sam snorted so loudly that everyone else jumped. “You may have, girl, stop lying. I know you can’t stop clicking ‘refresh’ on their website.”

“Just because some of us would rather memorize sports statistics than understand the laws of physics does not mean that all of us make that choice, Wilson.” Shuri arched her eyebrow.

“Do I need to be here for this?” Steve asked and they all looked appropriately chastised. As much as he fostered a sense of equality and camaraderie among his staff, and he considered them some of his closest friends, they were - in essence - his staff.

“Sorry, Congressman Rogers,” Shuri said, with a polite amount of derision laced into her voice just in case he forgot the dynamics. He bit back a grin. “Stark Imagineering tech always works. He doesn’t let it out the door until it does - Tony Stark is infamous for that.”

_Yes, I know,_ Steve thought, _but I can’t remember what I’m allowed to know as a general member of the public and what I only know because I’ve had Google alerts set up for him and the company since I learned what those were._

“So his tech will work, that’s the easy part,” Sharon replied. “In the battle between revolutionary technology and getting this White House to make ICE stand down? He’s got the cake walk.”

“This can’t wait until January,” Steve said. “I’m not waiting for a new administration.”

“Nothing is going to happen under this one,” Sam replied, with a heavy sigh.

“There’s a lot of space in the word ‘happen’,” Steve replied. “There’s putting it back in the headlines since we’ve gotten distracted with other issues as a nation, there’s lobbying harder than we have -”

“There’s finding someone to sue to the government,” Shuri interjected. It was Shuri’s deepest dream to sue the Trump White House and her list of potential lawsuits was about as long as Steve’s arm. Her passion was never the issue, the resources were. Suing the government was expensive, unless you found a law firm who was used to the Supreme Court and willing to do everything - and that meant paralegal salaries down to research trips - for free. They had yet to find such a unicorn.

“It’s not a leap for you to make this your issue,” Sharon replied as she hit a few buttons on her phone. “Kelly pulled some stats together. [Best guess is that about 40% of Brooklyn residents are immigrants and the majority come from China and Mexico.”](Best%20guess%20is%20that%20about%2040%%20of%20Brooklyn%20residents%20are%20immigrants%20and%20the%20majority%20come%20from%20China%20and%20Mexico.%E2%80%9D%20)

“So my guess is that there are groups in Brooklyn already fighting this fight and they’ve been trying to get time with me,” Steve said.

“I’ll have Meghan check the call logs,” Sam said, tapping at his iPhone.

“I’ll start sketching out the holes in our knowledge,” Sharon offered.

“I’ll start translating the tech into Steve-speak,” Shuri said with a giggle in her voice.

“I understand science,” Steve protested.

“What is leachate?”

Steve blinked a few times. “Fine, get me a vocab book.”

“You gotta have all the ammunition to go into battle with McConnell,” Sam replied.

“I’m aware,” Steve said. “You guys need me for this or can I stretch my legs.”

They’d all been with Steve long enough to know that was his signal that he needed a minute and they only answered ‘no’ when it really mattered.

“If you’re going to the dining car, get me a Snickers, will ya?” Shuri asked and Sam and Sharon also perked up.

“Congressman on a snack run.” Steve saluted and headed towards the back of the train car. He nodded at his security detail - a kid named Harper that had served with him, gotten injured and sent home, and needed a job. Steve wasn’t in particular need of a security detail, but Sharon had helped him find a donor who would cover Harper’s salary and no one was any the wiser.

He knew Harper would get up and follow him as he made his way through the two cars between his and the dining car, so he paid no attention to the rhythms of footsteps behind him, and allowed himself instead to get lost in the panic that had been clawing at him for the past 24 hours.

He was about to be in the same room with Tony for the first time in ten years.

He pulled out his phone.

_WhatsApp: Buckster & The Captain_

_Steve: Did Nat change the name again?_

_Bucky: Probably._

_Bucky: She’s mad at me. Something to do with a french drain I promised to dig in the backyard and didn’t?_

_Bucky: I’ve started googling ‘surgery to get eidetic memory’ because that might help me keep shit in my head._

_Steve: I think what you both need is sleep._

_Bucky: No shit, sherlock, but you’ve met my kids._

_Bucky: Therefore all gifts for the next ten years should be cases of Red Bull._

_Steve: I already told Meghan._

_Bucky: You have your staff buy me gifts?_

_Steve: you think you’re something special? Please, Barnes, you’re a dime a dozen._

_Bucky: Wounded. Slayed. How dare._

_Bucky: I’ll sue_

_Steve: who exactly?_

_Bucky: the organization of the united brotherhood of its none of your damn business_

Steve looked up as he got to the counter of the dining car. “Two Pepsis, three Snickers, and a thing of Pringles?”

The Amtrak employee nodded and fetched the snacks. She gave Steve his total - which never failed to make Steve’s eyebrows raise just slightly - and then he started his wander back to his seat.

_Steve: i’m nervous_

_Bucky: of course you are_

_Bucky: did Sarah help at all?_

_Steve: Didn’t tell her_

_Bucky: well, that’s a choice_

_Steve: she was only going to get all worked up_

_Bucky: You are meeting your soulmate that all of us think you should still be with for the first time in a decade and so I believe we are all “worked up” and she’d have every right to be too_

_Bucky: You figure out why you blurted his name so quick?_

_Steve: Don’t start, James_

_Bucky: SHOTS FIRED_

_Bucky: Fine, buddy, your call. You can keep your head in the sand and be an idiot, but it’s your life._

_Steve: I know what I’m doing._

_Bucky: In professional life, for sure, most competent guy I know. In your personal life? Not for a minute that I’ve known you._

_Steve: I hate you_

_Bucky: Mutual_

_Bucky: Hey, you up for watching the girls for a little bit on Saturday? Nat’s got a thing and please don’t ask me what but it’s something where i have to wear the good shoes._

_Steve: Of course. Eliza and I still have to finish the four hundredth run through of Tangled that you interrupted last time._

_Bucky: I started singing the song to myself the last time I fucked Nat. It’s gotten desperate._

_Steve: Maybe I can find someone at SI to manufacture a vibrating cock ring that sings Disney tunes and that’ll just fuck your sex life once and for all_

_Bucky: Your dedication to my happiness is noted, pal._

Steve snorted and slid back into his seat. He distributed the chocolates and popped open the Pringles for himself. He’d passed one of the Pepsis off to Harper, who loved the stuff, and kept one for himself purely to have something to do with his hands for the remainder of the train ride. He was about to ask a question when his phone vibrated one more time.

_Bucky: What if this is your second chance, pal? That’s all I’m saying._

Steve sighed and looked Sharon in the eyes. “What’s next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next week? the meeting.
> 
> (leachate, ps, is water that's run through trash or debris and therefore has chemicals or minerals in it that aren't safe for human consumption and it must be treated before it's allowed into the waste stream. do I know that off the top of my head? yes. do you want to know why? probably not.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More nerd links! If you have more questions about any of the policy stuff in here, hit me up in the comments, on Tumblr, or on Discord.

“This is Carol Danvers, Chief Executive Officer of Stark Imagineering,” Tony introduced Carol to the room.

The blonde woman responded by rolling her eyes. “I make sure his ideas make money and that everyone employed doesn’t get blown up. It’s not really that fancy. You all can call me Carol.” The room chuckled, which was what her comment was designed to do, Tony knew, and they all exchanged introductions.

Carol had figured out early on that people were innately in awe of SI in general and Tony in particular. The mythos surrounding him made doing business challenging sometimes - which is where she came in. She made sure to quickly establish the dynamics in the room that she wanted. If they were in a hostile environment, she’d introduce herself as Ms. Danvers and refuse to talk to anyone who called her Carol. In spaces where teamwork and camaraderie was important, she’d crack a joke.

“Tony, do you know Sharon Carter?”

Tony fought the urge to wipe his sweaty hands on his pants. _You can do this, Stark._ “Only by reputation. Hello, Dr. Carter.”

Sharon’s eyebrow went up and Tony knew he scored a point. “No one knows about that.”

“Well,” Tony replied with a smile, “no one knows about mine either, so secret doctor to secret doctor, I thought it was worth the risk.”

Sharon laughed and Tony let out a breath. “I only defended last year and then I stayed in this circus, so it doesn’t seem worth it.”

Tony cut a look to Steve, because the boy he loved wouldn’t have let her get away with that. “You call her doctor whenever it’s appropriate, right?”

Steve nodded decisively. “It’s her call to go by Ms. around here, and none of us understand it.”

Tony looked Sharon in the eye for a minute and saw a hint of the imposter syndrome he knew so well and chose to be on her side. “Eh, us scientists are a persnickety bunch. But I do have to ask if you’ve done any more research into the statistical predictability of literacy?”

Sharon smiled shyly, a look Tony didn’t recognize from any of the photos he’d ever seen of her. “Some, but I can’t build an algorithm that’ll take all the data I have and run it in the permutations I want.”

“Well, Dr. Carter,” Tony smiled broadly, “I think I may know someone who would love to help with that.”

She grinned back and then turned to the man on her right. “Call me Sharon, please. And this is Sam Wilson, he’s Congressman Rogers’ Chief Personnel Manager.”

“Which means I wrangle the puppies we get every semester as interns,” Sam said with a charming smile as he stretched out his hand. “And also make sure that Congressman Rogers is fully staffed at every event.”

“How many people does it take for you guys to keep the circus, as you called it, going?” Carol asked as Sharon gestured for them to take a seat.

“About fifteen on any given day,” Sam replied. “More or less if he’s traveling. Today in Brooklyn was a small staff. Campaign events are much larger.”

“My wife,” Shuri interjected, “takes personal joy in intercepting all of the men who try to give the congressman their numbers at campaign events.”

“Okoye is _terrifying_ ,” Sam said with a shudder.

“And effective,” Shuri said with a predatory grin and Tony’s heart warmed to this tribe of people his Steve had found. He’d been so worried when Steve cut himself off from so many people they’d been close to growing up - Steve was not meant to be a solitary creature. He needed people around him to make sure that he took care of himself instead of other people.

Tony had loved Steve in at least four definitions of the word. Tony didn't have memories of his childhood without Steve in them, really, nor did he remember feeling anything before ‘safe’ when he thought of Steve. He loved him as a brother at first, the defacto sibling that he got to play with while their mothers gossiped in the kitchen. (It was only later that Tony realized the gossip was Sarah trying to get Maria to be a better mother and Maria was trying to get Sarah to leave Joe Rogers.) He remembered the first time he saw someone kiss someone on TV and he wondered what it would be like to kiss Steve.

He remembered finding out.

He loved Steve in those ways too - in the flashy, butterfly portions of love that felt like it would burn out quickly if you didn’t hold onto it with both hands, and then in the settled way that soulmates could be. Until two months after his 16th birthday, he’d never imagined a life without Steve in it.

“And you guys have all been with him since city council?” Tony didn’t offer that he knew every inch of all of their stories from the times he’d casually pumped Sarah Rogers for information over the years, but if they were all going to be working together ice breaker questions were important.

Shuri and Sam nodded, but Sharon shook her head. Steve explained. “Sam served with me and Bucky, so he was actually the first person I tapped for this.”

“Your boy bought me a pizza and called it a paycheck for the first six months,” Sam said with a laugh and Tony didn’t miss Steve’s eyeroll. _Good, he’s also got someone making fun of him a little_.

“I added beer in pretty quickly,” Steve defended himself. “Shuri told me I was an idiot and hired herself.”

Tony barked out a laugh. “The woman who is heading up the filtration project, Jane Foster, was the same way. She came up to me at a lecture when I was first getting SI off the ground and told me who she was and asked when she should start.”

“Jane is enthusiastic about climate science,” Carol interjected and several people in the room executed a version of a snort. They all knew what her tone meant.

“I hired Sharon to help me with my national political knowledge,” Steve offered, “and then once I got elected, I hired her as Chief of Staff. Now, you’ve got all the people from my team who will make this work, and I’m assuming you and Carol are who we need from your team?”

Tony nodded and ignored the thudding of his heart. That was the first time Steve had looked at him and spoken to him since That Night and his soulmark was aching.

“Then let’s get started.”

* * *

A while later, they’d hashed out some of the details of the business side of things, and Tony had explained how his tech worked, and Steve had only wanted to crawl across the table and kiss him six times, which he counted as a victory.

“How much do you know about the current administration policies and how we got here?” Sharon asked Tony.

Tony made a face and wiggled his hand to signal “kinda/sorta”.

Steve nodded. “We have a thing we do here when they need to teach me about something I don’t know a lot about - we call it the Eliza Test, or Are You As Smart as a 3rd Grader? They have to teach it to me like I’d be teaching it to Eliza. Once I can get it that simplified, then we start expanding out and getting into more details. We were going to do the immigration policy party right after you left, but you’re welcome to stay for it.”

“Eliza’s smarter than your average 3rd grader,” Tony said shyly, like admitting he knew who Eliza was and didn’t have to ask for clarification was some sort of mistake. “At least, according to everyone I know who’s met her.”

“You know Liza?” Sam asked brightly and Steve mentally kicked himself. He may have forgotten to mention how tied he and Tony still were through their vast network of family.

“Not personally,” Tony replied, “but my best friend was summer camp best friends with Nat Barnes and they’ve stayed connected and, honestly, the planet is small. Eliza’s fame precedes her.”

“Wait,” Sharon said. “So you didn’t meet Bucky until you were in Iraq, but his soulmate was already best friends with Tony’s best friend?”

“And cousin,” Carol supplied. “Pep’s his best friend and first cousin. Their mothers are sisters.”

“Tony’s cousin,” Sharon corrected herself and pierced Steve with her gaze. “Are you sure your soulmark faded, because that is some high-level universe machinations there.”

Steve’s arm burned like he was melting his own flesh as he choked out, “I’m sure.”

He felt a set of eyes on his and he’d bet anything they were Carol’s, but he turned and found himself locking eyes with Tony. If this was another lifetime, the look in Tony’s eyes would be saying, _I still love you, I still choose you, you unmitigated idiot, just be honest._

But this was this lifetime and so Steve just cleared his throat. “So, we’re about to do the Eliza Test. You two wanna stay?”

Tony looked at Carol, who shrugged, and Tony nodded for them both. “Sure.”

* * *

All briefings on anything should be done in this format, Tony decided about ten minutes into the Eliza Test.

“Summarize for me, Congressman - why do we have a legal obligation to grant asylum and accept refugees?” Sam clicked his pen a few times as Steve started.

“The United States, as signatories of the U[nited Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol,](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/asylum-united-states) have declared ourselves as a destination for refugees and those seeking asylum outside of official refugee status,” Steve said and then paused to sip water. “Additionally, [under Title VIII, Aliens and Immigration of the U.S. Code,](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title8-section1158&num=0&edition=prelim) we have codified this commitment by declaring that, and I quote, 'Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.'”

“ _Summarize_ , Congressman, I said summarize,” Sam interjected. “Summarize, then quote code to me.”

“Legally, we signed two specific documents that tell the world that we want to be a safe haven for those who need one. Considering this is basically the foundation of our country as everyone who is here without 100% Native American blood is an immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, or enslaved person, or has an ancestor who was, this is fundamental to who we are,” Steve said, his voice gaining momentum. “Additionally, no matter what conditions someone comes here in, they are allowed - legally - to request asylum and to go through the official process to be granted or denied legal access to the country. You do not need to obtain legal access before crossing the border because for a lot of people that’s impossible and we know that.”

“So all these people at the border didn’t break the law?” Sharon asked.

“No ma’am,” Steve said, turning his smile on her as though she was a reporter. “They did not break any immigration laws simply by crossing the border. Once they do so, if they are denied asylum and refuse to leave, that is a different matter, but the simple act of crossing the border is not only not illegal, it is part of the necessary process of providing safety and a new life for those who need it.”

“Why should I care,” Shuri said. “My parents came in the hard way, the right way, and why should I just let these freeloaders crawl over the border and now I have to pay for them? No thank you.”

Tony knew Steve’s staff didn’t believe anything they were saying, that they were simply parroting reporters and the opinions of the public - but that didn’t mean Shuri’s words didn’t make his skin crawl.

“You should _care_ , Ms. Obengna, for the simple reason that the law that protects them is the same law that granted access to your parents. They are two sides of the same coin, not opposing ones. I can quote you a lot of statistics that say that undocumented people here in the United States contribute robustly to our economy, that their rate of crime as a population is lower than any other minority group, and more. But the real reason why you should care is that every time you stand up and say you’re an American - the provision of freedom and opportunity is what you are saying you stand for. If you put limits on that because of some sense of hierarchy or fairness that doesn’t actually exist, then I’m not entirely sure we pledge allegiance to the same flag.”

The last time Tony heard Steve make a speech like that was from the comfort of his own living room, where he didn’t have to hide the erection that was sprouting as it always did when Steve’s righteous anger started to flare. Having one in the U.S. Capitol building wasn’t something he’d quote been prepared for.

_Steve Rogers, fucking up my game since 1994._

“Whoah, cowboy,” Sharon laughed. “We applaud your enthusiasm, but if you could retract those claws juuuust a little until you’re actually facing down Steven Miller?”

“Sorry,” Steve grinned sheepishly.

“I thought it was good,” Tony piped up. “It’s when Steve is best - armed with facts and righteous anger.”

Tony didn’t fail to notice that Steve’s jaw dropped slightly at the compliment and wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“You’re not wrong,” Sam said with a chuckle. “We just usually ask him to keep the speechifying until after we make sure he knows all of the facts. He just jumped the gun.”

“Ah,” Tony said.

“But it’s a question you’ll have to answer too,” Shuri interjected. “Why are you helping people who are breaking the law? How will you answer?”

“That they’re not and I’m far more concerned with the fact that they’re drinking their own feces within the borders of my country than whether or not they should be there,” Tony said with a shrug. “I’ll tell them that Steve told me they’re allowed to be here and that’s good enough for me.”

“If you invoke Steve like that, they’ll dig up all the soulmate stuff,” Sharon cautioned. “We faced that during the election.”

“Yeah, I noticed you polled pretty high on that particular sob story,” Tony said with a false sense of lightness. Before Steve could interrupt him, he continued. “It’s not a secret, and I have to deal with it with customers all the time.”

“Especially in a few theocracies that don’t believe the marks can fade,” Carol added. “So we’re used to it.”

“There are…” Sam trailed off. “But the mark is burned off Steve’s skin.”

“It’s perfectly fine on Tony’s,” Carol retorted.

“Friends,” Steve said with a tone of finality.

“Yes, sir,” Sharon said. “Moving on, why would someone seek asylum here, do you think?”

“We know some of the reasons,” Steve said with certainty. “War, famine, debilitating poverty. The highest percentage of those we granted asylum to in the last ten years were from China and various Latin and South American countries. There are always high profile ones from North Korea and there have been a few women from Saudi Arabia, but mostly it’s those countries.”

“I thought we were getting lots of people from Syria?” Shuri said.

“Those are refugees, not asylum seekers,” Steve answered.

“There’s a difference?”

“Yes,” Steve said and then was quiet for a few minutes, clearly thinking about how to articulate this simply. “While they are both victims of persecution, refugees are usually entire people groups forced from their land and displaced by other people groups. So, just like with refugees, war is frequently at the heart of it, but it’s more to do with entire tribes or villages or ethnic groups, versus individuals and families.”

“Great job, boss,” Sharon commented. Steve grinned and Tony’s heart skipped a beat.

“Ready to get more into the family separation policies?” Shuri said.

“He can’t,” Meghan piped up from the corner where Tony had legitimately forgotten she was sitting. “He has a dinner in thirty.”

“It’s 6:30 already?” Steve said and looked at Tony. “I always lost track of time around you. Guess that hasn’t changed.”

“Guess not,” Tony said with a painful smile. “Well, I guess that’s our cue.”

“I’ll get all the numbers to you,” Carol said to Sharon, “once I meet with Bruce and Jane.”

“And we’ll start pestering DHS to let the Congressman tour the facility in El Paso,” Sam said. “No press, and just him and his bodyguard, I hope we can twist a few arms.”

“Let us know if that twisting needs monetary grease,” Tony said. “I’m sure there’s a district or two who needs new statues to dead white guys that’ll make someone happy enough to sign a piece of paper.”

“And who ever said business people don’t understand politics,” Sharon said as they all chuckled at Tony.

* * *

He asked Carol if they could debrief in the morning and she said that was fine, so he hailed an Uber from the Capitol and headed for his second favorite place on earth - Rhodey and Pepper’s house.

He didn’t remember life without Pepper in it, but they hadn’t really been close until Steve went away. He wasn’t sure who else to turn to that night - his parents were out of the question - and so he found himself firing up Facebook and sending her a message.

She’d responded immediately and they progressed to texting quickly and he realized the four years between them didn’t mean a thing. Pepper had just finished her sophomore year at Harvard and was dating an Air Force ROTC guy from MIT named James and within about six hours of sending that message, Tony had train tickets from New York to Boston. He moved in with Pepper almost immediately, telling his parents that there were summer programs at MIT he wanted to attend.

They didn’t appear to register an opinion regarding his absence.

Growing up, he had no idea why he could never get his mother to snuggle him like Sarah did with Steve or get Howard to react to any of his inventions. He took apart the washing machine when he was six and put it back together so that it used ⅓ less water and he got grounded instead of praised.

If he hadn’t had Sarah Rogers, he probably would have gone full alcoholic around age 12. But he did, so he learned some things.

He learned truths - both painful and non - and he learned what hugs felt like when you’re sad. He learned how much home could smell like freshly baked bread and he learned what strength looked like when it wasn’t wrapped in muscles.

_“Chicken,” Sarah held him close one afternoon when he was nine. Maria had just ‘accidentally’ thrown out one of his inventions - a self-folding clothes dryer that admittedly needed work but didn’t need the bin - and Howard hadn’t been home in four days. Tony sniffled his tears back as Sarah’s gentle Galway accent poured over his soul. “I’m going to tell you a story, okay?”_

_Tony nodded into the crook of her arm and she began._

_“This is the kind of story that a lot of adults think I should wait to tell you. They think you’re not old enough to understand, but to them I say, cockriddle. You are a genius, but more than that, you deserve to know.”_

_Tony was confused, but Sarah always told stories with good endings, so he listened._

_“Your mother and father are not soulmates.”_

_Tony’s heart stopped for two beats. Not soulmates? Then why were they together? He thought everyone who was married was a soulmate._

_“It’s not uncommon for people to get married who don’t have soulmarks - but the difference is that your mother and father believed their soulmarks would appear after they got married,” Sarah explained._

_“But they didn’t?” Tony knew his voice was small._

_“They didn’t,” Sarah confirmed. “And they’ve been angry about it ever since.”_

_“Are they angry at me?”_

_“I don’t think so,” Sarah responded honestly and in years to come, Tony would treasure that Sarah hadn’t sugar coated this conversation. “I think they’re very angry at the universe and they just don’t know what to do with you.”_

_“Do you know what to do with me, Mrs Rogers?”_

_“I do, Anthony Edward,” Sarah said as she kissed his forehead. “I know just what to do with you. I’m going to love you forever and ever and right now, I’m going to get you some rice pudding.”_

_Tony brightened. Mrs Rogers’ rice pudding was the best._

He learned family from Sarah and it’s why - even after Steve did what he did - Tony couldn’t let go of her. Thankfully, Sarah felt the same way.

He pulled out his phone and hit the fourth number in his Favorites list.

_“Hello darling, I’m just off with Steve there and he said it went really, really well,”_ Sarah’s soft brogue filled Tony’s ears. _“But how do you feel, my Anthony?”_

He took a deep breath and was shocked to feel tears clog his throat. “I feel heavy, Mama Rogers.”

_“Well, I’m proud of you, you know. I wish you would just tell Steve -”_

“No, Mama, we’ve been over this,” Tony interrupted her. “And you promised you’d disobey your ancestors and not meddle.”

_“You're stripping me of my rights as an Irish mammy, Anthony,”_ Sarah sassed back.

“Well, good thing I’m Italian,” Tony said.

Her laugh at their well-worn joke was a balm on his soul.

“I’m in the taxi, so I can’t say much, but I wanted to let you know I’m going to Pep and Rhodey’s and so I’m going to miss the weekly call tomorrow.”

_“Oh, I figured I’d hear from you whenever you could,”_ Sarah said blithely, _“but thank you for letting me know. Now, you go let yourself be Uncle Tony. I’m sure that Marcus, Phillip, and Annie have all sorts of projects for you to join them on.”_

“That’s the plan. I’ll meet with Carol tomorrow and then I’m sure I’ll head back to California,” Tony replied.

_“Or, you could stay on this coast a little bit longer and be with your family.”_

“I just agreed to design a project that doesn’t really exist yet. I need to get back to work.”

She made a noise. _“And Jarvis can’t help you with the schematics while you’re in Pepper’s guest room? Bullshit, Anthony.”_

“Language, Mama Rogers!”

_“I’ve been using that word since before you were born, boyo, and so I know it when I hear it. Stay here and when Jane or Bruce need you, go back.”_

“I’ll see,” Tony said.

_“You’re lying, but you’re very cute when you do it. Have fun with the Rhodes’ and call me soon.”_

“Bye, Mama.”

_“Bye, Tony. Remember, I love you forever and ever.”_

Even though she ended every single call that way, for some reason hearing it while driving away from Steve got him in the gut and he nearly doubled over in the back of the taxi. He cried quietly for the rest of the ride and as he climbed the steps to ring the bell. Pepper met him at the door.

“So, spoiler alert, I still love him,” he said by way of greeting and Pepper pulled him into her arms.

“Well, let’s go talk to some ice cream about that, shall we?”

God, he loved Pepper Rhodes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steven Miller is on 45's staff and is largely responsible for the language of the administration. Crooked Media refers to him as a ["C+ Santa Monica Fascist"](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/80iekw/why_are_people_calling_stephen_miller_a_c_santa/) and I can't find evidence to disagree with them.
> 
> Tune in next week when Steve tells Sarah about the words. 
> 
> It goes as well as you think it goes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to heather and jeh for cheering this one. they both asked me to issue a Serious Tissue Warning for this chapter, so consider yourself warned.

_May 2020_

“Are you still overwhelmed?”

MJ looked up from her station to see Jane approaching, munching on an apple.

“Completely,” MJ admitted and saw Jane grin.

“Then you’re in the right place, honestly. I’ve been overwhelmed since I started. What can I help with?”

MJ blew her hair out of her eyes and sat back in her chair. “The code I have that runs the filtration percentages works great when it’s at 2 gallons per minute, but it shorts out when I up it to 4 and I cannot figure out where the coding is wrong.”

Jane nodded. “The multiplier must be working against the wrong line.”

“I’ve tried every single line,” MJ nearly yelled.

Instead of scolding her for making too much noise, like most people in MJ’s life tended to, Jane simply waited until MJ was clearly done and then spoke. “I’m sure you have. Coding is a fickle bitch. Do you want me to take a look?”

MJ nodded and got up from her terminal, allowing Jane to take a seat.

“When I started here,” Jane said as she hunted and pecked through MJ’s code, “I was terrified of Tony and Bruce. They had their own language, their own everything, and I felt completely on the outside of it.”

“So what did you do?”

“I yelled at them for it,” Jane shrugged, not taking her eyes off the screen. “Which is what worked for me because that’s what I do when I’m frustrated. I yell.”

“I do too,” MJ said as she worried at her bottom lip.

“But you don’t like when you do, do you?”

“I don’t. I feel out of control and I don’t like feeling out of control.”

“Then we just have to come up with a way for you to express things that keep you in control,” Jane said matter-of-factly. “Here, it’s in the python sequencing. There’s an extra zero on this line.”

They both watched as the computer ran the algorithm again and didn’t struggle with the increase in gallon load. They upped it again, and again, and soon they were replicating the filtration sequence for 75 gallons per minute, which was the goal MJ had set herself.

“Thanks, Jane,” MJ said.

“Innovation is a team sport, Michelle,” Jane said seriously. “Even if you’re not sure what to do with the rest of the team all the time, we want to help.”

* * *

_WhatsApp: Janney Mac!_

_Jane: She didn’t ask, per se, but we got there._

_Tony: So she doesn’t like it when she gets mad. Interesting._

_Jane: Said she feels out of control and doesn’t like feeling out of control._

_Tony: Join the club kid._

_Jane: So Mr. Boss Man, we just gotta make sure she never feels out of control in ways we can control._

_Tony: We’re using control too much. It’s lost all meaning._

_Jane: I’m going to see if Thor has any ideas - he’s really good with calming people down. Lots of practice with his asshat brother._

_Tony: Any intel is appreciated. Pep’s the conflict mediator in our group, but this isn’t conflict._

_Jane: Speaking of, how are the sproglets?_

_Tony: They’re fine. Annie is painting my toes right now._

_Jane: They must like seeing you so much again._

“Uncle Tony,” Marcus called from the kitchen, “can I have Oreos?”

“Marcus, what time is it?” Tony replied and waited for the inevitable answer.

“Not time for me to have Oreos,” Marcus replied glumly.

“No, buddy, it’s not. Oreo time is after dinner.”

_Tony: I’m not exactly sure of that._

_Jane: It’s the middle of May, Tony. You’ve been out there, basically, for a month. I’m going to start renting out your office couch._

_Tony: Don’t you dare. And I come back!_

_Jane: No, wait, I’m not mad you’re out there. We have everything under control here, I promise. Carol told me it’s best that you’re there and working with Rogers’ office and I trust her. We’re bumping along just fine._

_Tony: I know._

_Tony: This talk of renting out my couch, though_

_Jane: I’d have to exterminate it first and that seems like effort_

_Tony: I’m clean._

_Jane: always questionable._

Tony snorted and locked his phone again so that he could turn his full attention to the six-year-old sitting in front of him. Annie had been very concerned that Uncle Tony’s toes were boring and so she’d set herself the task of making each nail a different color.

Rhodey and Pepper were at an event for their middle child, Phillip, and so Tony had offered to run roughshod over the other two until they got home. It was a quiet Saturday and the weather outside was so perfect that the three had spent a while in the back garden of the Rhodes family townhouse. Tony and Annie played pirates and Marcus read some fantasy tome that Tony was positive was too mature for the kid, but he was only the uncle.

He’d also spent the day resisting the urge to push up the arms of his hoodie since he could feel more words sear themselves into his skin. He had no idea what game the Great Whoever was playing, but every second Tony wasn’t in Steve’s physical presence was getting increasingly excruciating. He was going to have to address the words soon, ask Steve if he was getting them, too, if this was some sort of side effect of the faded soulbond.

Because the mark was darker and thicker than ever and his skin was spawning more and more evidence that he and Steve were linked somehow.

Bold letters crept around Tony’s arms with items both mundane and painful. No, Sharon, I’m not sending our interns to do my shopping had made Tony laugh right out loud, but he’d nearly wept earlier in the day when - while going to the bathroom - I’m glad he’s with family, I’m sure he’s a really good uncle had scorched itself into Tony’s right thigh.

They faded just as quickly as they appeared sometimes and other times the words lingered. Tony had never believed in the magic side of soulmate theory, but after watching that Harry Potter movie with the unhinged headmistress, he was wondering how much Rowling actually made up.

In the last few weeks of working together, though, Steve had given no indications that he felt anything different for Tony than a vague collegiality. Tony dashed up and down the East Coast, meeting with companies who had the cash to sponsor the project, with students eager to help, with professors who wanted him to give lectures on innovation, with reporters who wanted to know as much as they could about this new venture.

Meanwhile, Steve and his team were busy getting access to the camps. Tony had gotten word that morning that Steve, Shuri, and Sharon were all flying on a clandestine trip on Monday. He was anxious to hear what was really happening, but also….

Seeing it all would shatter Steve and the part of Tony that was still in love with him was braced for impact.

* * *

This was a conversation that needed to happen in person, Steve knew. Not one he was looking forward to, but one that needed to happen in person. He’d called his ma and double checked that she was free on Saturday and then had Meghan get him a rental car. He didn’t want to be trapped by a train schedule.

It was late when he arrived on Friday night - not long after midnight - and he assumed his mother would already be in bed.

He forgot his mother was Sarah Rogers.

“Boyo,” she called from the kitchen as he entered the living room. “Is that you?”

“No, Ma, it’s the Zodiac.” Sarah had not quite adjusted to Steve’s loss of hearing. She still called for him like he was a wee’un and so he made sure he was concentrating hard whenever he entered his mother’s house, just in case she was lurking in the kitchen and expected him to answer.

“Well, at least I’ll get the reward money,” Sarah replied as she entered the living room. “Oh! And maybe Karen and Georgia will have me on the show.”

“You know I can introduce you to them,” Steve said as he kissed his mother on the cheek and debated taking off his jacket. He hadn’t been ready for her to see yet. He didn’t have a chance to make the decision before she pulled him into a hug and he relaxed just slightly, like he always did. There was no one on the planet who hugged like his mom. All five foot five of her, she tucked herself into him and yet completely surrounded him. Immediately, he was six years old again and she would protect him from everything that was wrong in the world.

“I know, but who wants to meet the Hot Congressman’s mammy?”

“Many, many, people, Ma.” Steve chuckled and decided to go for it, hoping that his sleeves would cover most of what had appeared that week and that nothing new had sprouted during the drive.

“What in the ever loving blazes of Jesus is that,” Sarah exclaimed, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the side table lamp. She shoved his arm into its glow and then stared at him. “That’s Tony’s handwriting.”

“I know,” he said on a sigh.

“You have your former soulmate’s handwriting scribbled on your skin,” Sarah elaborated.

“Yes, Ma, that’s why I’m here.”

“Well, I see now why you didn’t want to do the Facetime-” Steve hid a smile at the definite article she always added “- because this is a whiskey conversation while we consult the ancestors.”

Normally, Steve wasn’t into all the talk that Sarah and her sisters did about how they had The Sight and could translate soulmarks because of the ancient Celtic magic or whatever the hell. He stopped listening somewhere around age five because it all just seemed insane.

But now he had his soulmate’s handwriting appearing all over his body, when there was an understanding among humans that everyone only got one type of soulmark. He had one - one that he continually burned off or tattooed over, but it was there - why was he getting another type?

“Sit, sit,” Sarah instructed her son as she produced a bottle of 12-year Bushmills and two glasses. She poured - something above a shot and below a full glass - and then busied herself with getting down a few books from the shelves. She was muttering to herself, too low for Steve to understand any of the consonants.

“Ma, if any of that muttering is for me, you need to speak up.”

She turned and signed, “Drink your whiskey, I’m finding what I need.”

He settled himself against the couch and did just that, letting his eyes rove around the family room. Framed pictures dotted nearly every surface - shots from the trips they took to Ireland to see family, shots from Steve’s swearings in, shots from the campaign trails, shots of…

He hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a framed snap of Sarah and Tony right next to where his mother sat to do her cross-stitch each night and it was recent. Sarah had her hair styled the way she started wearing it only last year. He knew they were still close, that Tony clung to Sarah as his mother since Maria had turned out to be such a dud. Most people in Steve’s life were pulled into Sarah’s orbit and never left, even if Steve no longer kept in touch with them. She’d sent dedicated care packages to his entire unit and had gone with him to a christening recently where she knew more people than he did. That was just Sarah Rogers - she was everyone’s mom and he was so proud of her all the time that she loved so deeply and so well.

Would it _kill_ her though to not be _so_ attached to Tony?

_But you want this,_ his inner voice said, _you want him to have family, even though it can’t be you. You want him to be loved and protected and cared for and who better than Ma to do that?_

Before he could poke that train of thought much farther, Sarah snapped three times - their signal that she was ready to talk to him.

“Now, there is nothing in here about what happens to faded soulmarks -”

_You have to tell her_ , his inner voice told him. _She’s about to open up a whole can of worms and you have to tell her._

As Sarah prattled on, running her fingers down pages to try to find the spot she was thinking of, Steve slowly took off his hoodie. The current iteration of his soulmark was the natural one. He was about to get another tattoo, since short sleeve season was around the corner. The issue was each tattoo only seemed to last about six to eight months before his mark seemed to delete the tattoo. Just like four months after he burned it off, it grew back.

The universe wanted him marked to Tony, he got that now. But he’d screwed up too much to ever try again and he knew that too. But the words…

“Ma,” Steve said softly. “I need to tell you something.”

“ - and then if we look at the writings from Paddy McGuinness back in, oh, what do you need?”

“The mark never disappeared.”

“What do you mean, ‘the mark never disappeared’, Steven, I saw the burned flesh with my own eyes, we had to go to the hospital and get it treated, what do you mean it never disappeared?”

This was it, the moment he’d never come back from, saying out loud the thing he’d never said out loud, to his mother, who’d been planning his and Tony’s bonding ceremony since Tony could basically walk.

“I burned it off.”

The silence roared through the house and into Steve’s soul. Sarah simply blinked at him. “I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say that you burned off your own soulmark.”

“I did,” Steve whispered and buried his face in his hands for a few breaths.

“Steven Grant, you look at your mother right now,” Sarah said in a tone that sounded like a growl that Steve had never heard before. He’d been yelled at, derided, scorned, scolded, all sorts of other adverbs from Sarah, but this noise was new.

He brought his eyes up to her tentatively.

“Explain yourself _right now_.” She emphasized the last two words as though they were their own sentences.

“The week after Tony got the early acceptance,” Steve said with a shaky breath, “I knew that if we stayed together, he’d be limited by me. I’d never earn enough money to support his creativity and the idea of making him work for someone else just made me crazy and I knew if I left, he’d reach greatness. So I broke up with him.”

Sarah blinked at him like she was a broken ventriloquist dummy. “I just cannot compute the words coming out of your mouth, boyo. You are telling me that you thought you knew better than the universe, better than the Lord God Almighty, better than Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, better than anyone else who has a hand in matters of eternity, you’re telling me that your little teenage self knew better than all of them? And so you shattered your soulmate? You lied to all of us? You lied to Tony, you lied to me? You lied to the American people? Have you misplaced your mind, Steven?”

Steve was sobbing by now, heaving things that wracked his whole body. The more she talked, the more all of the marks burned - some of Tony’s words actually lit up with the intensity with which they were burning.

“Well, then the words are pretty easy to solve, you fecking eejit, they’re the universe making it ABUNDANTLY clear that your SOULMATE is ANTHONY EDWARD STARK and that you are,” Sarah stopped herself. “I can’t even look at you right now. My own flesh and blood, my own son, lying to… I just can’t even bear to be in the room with ya.”

She downed her whiskey in one shot and then headed for the stairs without a backwards glance. She paused on the first step. “The sheets on the bed are clean and I put out your toothbrush for you. Sleep well, God bless.”

If Steve had the capacity to laugh at all, he would have. His mother basically just smote him off the face of the planet, but she was still - and always would be - his mother.

* * *

The next morning, he awoke to the smell of coffee and checked his phone. 5:15am. He usually left for his run around 5:30, but he had a feeling Sarah would not be letting him out the door today.

He knew that if he showered and all of that, she’d know he was delaying the conversation and then that would lead to more yelling and so he just struggled into a pair of sweatpants and padded downstairs.

_Oh shit, there are fresh scones. She’s been up for a while._

“Good morning, Steven,” Sarah said primly. “I made your favorites because I got tired of scrubbing the kitchen at 3am because I didn’t really sleep because my son, my own flesh and blood, my heart walking around outside my body, told me he has been lying to me for ten years. So tuck in.”

“Ma, I know what I did,” Steve said, slouching into the chair like a teenager.

“No, Steven, I don’t think you do,” Sarah said. He noticed she wasn’t making eye contact with him and he wondered if that was intentional. “I’ve never known you to be selfish but I have known you to be illogically stubborn and that stubbornness can make you selfish. So we’re going to talk about that.”

Steve silently reached for the peach and white chocolate scone in front of him and shoved some in his mouth before he could react. He knew better than to say anything right now.

“I can’t sign,” Sarah said, a slight catch in her voice, “not this, I’m not going to remember the words. So can you look at me?”

Steve’s heart clenched for his mother, whose voice had been (and still was) a soundtrack of his life. He’d lost 80% of his hearing when the IED exploded in the barracks he and his squadron were in, but he could remember his mother’s voice like that had never happened. She’d tried so hard to learn ASL for him and could manage most of the time.

And in the midst of her searing pain, she remembered he preferred signing in the morning since he woke up with a headache nearly every day.

He did not deserve her.

As his eyes met her lips, she began.

“I remember the day your mark appeared,” she said. “I remembered knowing you’d always be safe because the only person who loved you more than Tony was me. I knew that whatever boneheaded trouble you got into, the two of you would face it together. I drove to your father’s grave while you were at school and I told him that you had escaped him for real with that mark. That his legacy was dead because the family you would raise with Tony would look so different than the one you were raised in because, unlike him, you weren’t a coward.”

He stuffed more scone into his mouth, willing the chewing motion to stop the tears that were threatening.

“And I remember the day you left for basic training and I found Tony asleep in your bed. He’d snuck in the window after you’d left and fallen asleep in your sheets. He looked at me with his big doe eyes and begged me to not wash your sheets for a little while, saying he could still smell you and your mark and could he have you just a little longer?”

_Ohgod, I never knew that._

The scones were not going to be enough.

“And I remember a million other moments where I was so confused over the last decade. The ways the universe continued to knit the two of you together, I couldn’t understand why it had torn you apart. I read everything I could find on disappeared marks and in every other case, the people ceased to exist for each other. But you and Tony kept stumbling along in parallel lives.”

Steve started signing back to her and he couldn’t have even explained why he was doing that instead of speaking. But his fingers were flying without conscious thought.

“I did it to save him, I did it to protect him, do you think I did it because I didn’t love him? Ma, I’m still in love with him. Being in that room with him made my fingers itch and my heart hurt but he is too good for me. I am not good enough for him, I never was, and I never will be, and I love him -”

He was crying and signing and Sarah simply grabbed his hands and held them in hers. “I can’t follow a lot of that, love. But I caught ‘love’ and ‘good enough’ and if I know my boy, you’ve decided in that Irish stubborn head of yours that you aren’t good enough for him and that’s why you did this?”

That question, said so plainly, shattered the last of Steve’s resolve. He slid out of the chair and onto the kitchen floor - his body could not remain upright any longer, he simply lost the will to control it. He laid prostrate at his mother’s feet and sobbed. And then, because Sarah Rogers was the best mother God herself ever created, she got down on the floor with him and pulled his head into her lap.

He could feel the vibrations of her singing before he could really hear it and he let himself cry until there were no more tears.

_On the wings of the wind o'er the dark rolling deep_   
_Angels are coming to watch o'er thy sleep_   
_Angels are coming to watch over thee_   
_So list to the wind coming over the sea._

_Hear the wind blow love, hear the wind blow_   
_Lean your head over and hear the wind blow_   
_Hear the wind blow love, hear the wind blow_   
_Hang your head over and hear the wind blow._

He knew the rhythms of the Connemara Cradle Song as well as he knew his own name - he’d heard it from his aunts, and his uncles, and his grandmother, and his mother. It was their family song, the one sung by the mothers waiting for their fishermen husbands to come back from rough seas and trying to calm wailing infants in every branch of the McCool family they could trace. It was times like this that Steve knew he was never truly Joseph Rogers’ son, for he was completely Sarah McCool’s.

They stayed like that for a while, until Steve found the strength again to sit up and scootched to lean against the kitchen wall.

“Boyo,” Sarah said as she grabbed his chin to turn his face to hers, “I love you with everything I am, but I’m an old lady and you don’t make enough money to help me replace these hips.”

Steve snorted and gathered himself before helping Sarah off the floor as well. She told him she’d put the kettle on and that they should transition to the living room where they’d come up with a plan.

When the proper refreshments were settled, Sarah sat down next to him and started examining Tony’s words.

“Sounds like he’s been a little stressed,” Sarah replied evenly.

“You talk to him, you’d know,” Steve said.

“No,” Sarah replied, “I am not breaking the promise I made to the both of you now that I know it was all a sham. You tell Tony what you just told me and I’ll start acting as the mama to the pair of you again, but for now, you are separate boys with separate lives and I’m not passing intelligence.”

“You aren’t CIA,” Steve replied.

“Please,” Sarah snorted. “I know secrets that would make your CIA weep. I’m an Irish woman. We keep secrets in our bones.”

He chuckled, but then fell quiet. He was so many emotions that he wasn’t sure what to address first.

“So, boyo,” Sarah signed, “what is your plan?”

There was no ASL word for ‘boyo’ but Sarah couldn’t not use her favorite term, so she’d also been making up some hand actions and her ASL had turned into this odd hybrid language and he loved it.

“I don’t know,” he confessed out loud. “I was hoping you would have one.”

“My son doesn’t have a _plan_?” Sarah screeched. “Has hell itself taken over the gates of heaven?”

“You know, I come here for the calm way you speak to me,” Steve sassed back. “Makes me feel loved.”

Sarah smacked him on the shoulder. “You miss that, too? Don’t make me wash your mouth for sassing your ma.”

“Never dream of it, Ma.”

They were quiet for a few moments, and Steve got the feeling he knew exactly what his mother was going to say but that she was afraid to say it. She must have finally worked up the courage because she eventually started.

“Steven Grant Rogers, I’m going to say this once and then I’ll let it lie, but the only plan here is to tell him the truth. You owe him and yourself that. That is literally the only way forward at all. You’ve been lying to all of us for so long, I’m not even sure you know why you’re doing it anymore. Nat and Bucky are going to make you go to therapy, you know.”

“I do,” Steve said on a laugh. “They’re going to be so mad.”

“And they should be,” Sarah said simply. “This is a huge thing that affected a lot of us and you’ll have to eat a lot of crow, but you have to start with Tony.”

“I know.”

“So you’ll be getting back in your car right now and driving to an airport to go to California to tell him?”

He blinked at her. “No, Ma, I’m not ready for that yet.”

She set her jaw and he knew he was in for it. “Well, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve held all the chips in this game of poker for long enough and I don’t really care if you’re ready. You’re going into business with this man, he deserves to know the truth.”

“It’s a temporary-”

“Don’t you dare lie to me like you’re lying to yourself,” Sarah snapped. “Go and tell him now.”

Steve closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. “Ma, I have to be in El Paso on Monday morning and walk through what are essentially concentration camps. I cannot have this out with Tony and then go and do that and be anything professional. I will tell him when I’m ready.”

“Okay, not before the camps, I agree, but then you’ll fly to Malibu from El Paso and do it then.”

“Ma -”

“Steven.”

Metaphorically crossing his fingers behind his back, he replied, “I’ll do it as soon as I can, Ma.”

* * *

“Steve,” Shuri said softly when they were back on the plane. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not in this century,” Steve replied.

He’d thrown up four times since leaving the facility, and ran out of tears before that. He knew that none of the people in the detention center needed his pity or his tears or his pain, they needed his solutions and so he tried. He told them he was working on getting them clean water while he was also working on getting them back with their families. They told him both were good, but he needed to be faster - they were tired of drinking their own urine in the middle of the night.

He’d heard stories of babies literally ripped from their mother’s backs, papooses cut off of women as they watched their screaming children being carried away by officers who were supposedly sworn to protect the huddled masses yearning to break free. “What crime have we committed?” Steve was asked over and over. Shuri translated as much as she could, but some of the tribal languages were foreign even to her well-traveled ears.

He had known the problem was big, he had. He just hadn't realized…

“Eliza Test,” he whispered out, hoping facts would ground him.

Both Sharon and Shuri looked at him skeptically, but Sharon asked the first question.

“Congressman Rogers, this isn’t America, how can we let this happen?”

“Well, Karen,” Steve sighed, and knew that neither of the women missed his generic slight, “unfortunately this is America. We started treating non-white people as subhuman before we even were a nation and then, in 1882, we wrote the first exclusionary immigration act when we banned all people of Chinese nationality from coming to America. We expanded it to all Asian countries in 1917, even after thousands and thousands of Chinese men died building our railroads, and then, when we opened up the borders to non-Europeans again in the 60s, people started clutching pearls again about immigrant taking their jobs because this is America, this is always how we’ve been and any of us lucky people who were told it was different were blinded by our privilege because this is how the system is designed to work! Land of the free and the home of the brave, my retired Marine ass. The oppression is a feature, not a bug, and we gotta burn the whole system to the fucking ground if we have any hope of building the America we were promised.”

He let out a ragged breath and Shuri let out a slow clap. “Feel better, Congressman?”

“No,” Steve admitted, “but I got to yell a little.”

She snorted. “America’s great and catastrophic failure is our failure to imagine what it would be like to live together.”

“Well, that just punches you in the gut,” Sharon said. “Where’d that come from.”

“An author named Jess Row, I saw it on Instagram,” Shuri said. “But I think there’s something in there for us. We need to imagine a new America, not to reclaim one that never existed.”

“They’re drinking their own urine, Shuri,” Steve growled. “On soil I gave my hearing to defend.”

“Then let’s get them some clean water, Congressman.”

“That’s all you got?”

“Right now? You’re foaming at the mouth, and you should be,” Shuri replied. “So right now, yes, that’s all I got. Once you go talk to some punching bags about your feelings, we’ll have more.”

“I don’t need to be managed.”

“No, that’s exactly what you need and why you pay us, numbnuts,” Sharon said with an eyeroll. “Shuri’s right. What we just saw was a circle of hell within our borders and we all know it’s not the only one. So let’s stop trying to be pragmatic right now. We’ll imagine a new America tomorrow. Let’s just get home first, okay?”

He nodded and acquiesced her point. He pulled out his phone and lost himself in 5048 for the remainder of the flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Sarah knows and now that Steve's been to the camp, he promised Sarah he'd call Tony. 
> 
> Bets on him *actually* doing that?
> 
> See next Monday!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Heather for the beta, and to all of you who are giving me life by exchanging theories on what Bucky will do when he finds out and on how quickly Steve will tell Tony the truth.

Pepper found Tony sitting on the floor of his room, the day before his birthday, staring at a keychain in his hand.

“Tones?”

Tony looked up at her with giant eyes, filled with tears, and he held out the item. “Look at what the fucking himbo sent me.”

Pepper turned it over in her hand. It was a simple leather keychain with words stamped on it.

“I don’t understand,” Pepper replied. “Why would a sentence about ducks be-”

“Because it was our tagline,” Tony exploded. “‘Ducks fly together’ is a line from Mighty Ducks and it’s an important one and it’s our line, Pep. Motherfucker sent me our line for my birthday as though he’s allowed to use our line anymore. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING? His soulmark is gone, and he said he wanted it gone. He said he was sure this was the right move, that even though we could still be together and not be soulmates, he didn’t want that.”

Pepper remained silent as Tony got up and started pacing the room.

“He stood there, in the moonlight, with a bandage on his arm because that thing was oozing, Pep, it was so gross, and he was sobbing and saying that it was for the best. It was for the best that we were separated and that he’d enlisted and I knew he was going to but we were going to go together and then he stands up on national television ten years later and does… and then he sends me… WHAT IS HE DOING, PEP?”

“I don’t know, babe,” Pepper said quietly. He collapsed on the bed and she moved to pull him into an embrace. “I have no idea.”

“I can’t walk,” Tony muttered, “this is all too important.”

“I know.”

“And now that he knows I know Eliza and that you and Nat are friends and… we’re still tied together,” Tony continued.

“You are,” Pepper affirmed. She stroked his hair and kissed his forehead. “For better or worse, you can’t go back now, or at least, not quickly.”

Tony was quiet for a minute.

“Do you remember the movie?”

“Vaguely,” she replied.

He pulled away from her and sat up. “Basically, an asshole named Gordon gets community service and is made to coach a team of super poor kids who play pond hockey. The main kid’s name is Charlie - single mom, hard worker, just a good kid, you know? Steve and I both wanted to be friends with Charlie - we both felt like Charlie a lot. Our dads were… well, you know, and throughout the movie, Gordon becomes Charlie’s father figure, but it’s really Charlie who changes Gordon’s life.” Tony paused for a few minutes and Pepper figured he was gathering himself.

“The thing the whole team repeats as they bond is that ‘ducks fly together’ and it’s just a thing, I guess,” Tony said with a small smile on his face. “And it’s a thing that became our thing - the phrase we said to each other when everything was too much. That we were ducks and we flew together. And now…”

“And now he’s invoking it,” Pepper finished for him. Tony nodded and crumpled into her.

They sat like that, quietly, for a while before Pepper spoke again. “I don’t think that we’ll know by just sitting here though. And if you’re not in the mood to ask him directly -”

“Nope.”

“- then I’d say we probably need to try to do something else to distract you a bit. Like maybe wash your face and head downstairs because your niece is desperate to show you the unicorn crown she made you for your birthday.”

“Is there glitter?”

Pepper snorted. “Not if she wants to still live here.”

* * *

“The press coverage is positive,” Carol reported to the room full of exhausted inventors. Their slight grins were her reward.

Bruce, Jane, and MJ had been working round the clock to get ready for a test launch of the Segunda Filtration System and had found a makeshift camp in a parking lot in LA for LGBTQ+ teens who had been kicked out of their houses. Bruce volunteered there every week and had hooked them up. There was running water and it was… okay, but Bruce told them he could make it better.

They’d trusted the seemingly gentle man and let him put a machine in their space.

And by god, it had worked.

“The best questions were from the people who wanted to know why we gave it a female noun ending,” Carol continued and MJ snorted.

“Porque las mujeres hacen todo el trabajo duro en este mundo,” she muttered, her eyes still closed, and Carol smiled.

“That’s basically what I told them,” Carol said, “and I had no idea you spoke Spanish.”

MJ cracked an eye. “11th grade, I couldn’t handle gym class so I got study hall and decided to actually learn the language instead of just passing the classes. Comes in handy in the neighborhood.”

“I can imagine,” Carol responded. “Anyway, all the stats tell us it’s up to par with what Tony has told the Congressman SFS can handle. How many more tests do you guys want to do before we tell his team we can head to El Paso?”

“Three,” Bruce replied. “The water they have at the lot is city water that just hasn’t passed through the final filtration yet, so we tested the speed, but not really the capacity to filter microbials. I talked to a dyehouse out East that needs pharmaceutical grade water for their manufacturing and they’ve agreed to let me use SFS for a production cycle if I’ll run all their tests rapidly. I’m on the plane tomorrow.”

“And I’m sending two to Central Texas where they have trouble with the runoff from big ranches going into the water stream,” Jane piped in. “When we get data back from all of them, I’ll feel more comfortable telling you it’s ready.”

Carol nodded and made a few notes on her StarkPad. “Fantastic. Now I’m locking the lab and sending you to bed.”

“Tony’s not here, Carol,” Bruce said on a yawn. “You don’t have to twist our arms. He’s the crazy person who doesn’t believe in sleep.”

_Yes, because I have a feeling the voices that come to him when he’s alone are the things he can’t imagine facing._

“Nevertheless,” Carol grinned at them, “shoo.”

They did just that and she was soon alone in her favorite place in the whole company - her office in Tony’s lab. She had a desk in at least fourteen of their locations, but this one had the beat up sofa she and Tony had slept on so many night while they were growing SI, it had her stash of Raisinettes that Tony surreptitiously kept stocked even though she knew he ate out of it regularly, it had her favorite hoodie that she could wrap herself while she worked. This was the room where she was Carol, part of the team, not Carol Danvers, Boss of Everyone.

She loved this room.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming call and she answered it as soon as she saw who it was.

“Hello, Nat, I was wondering when I’d hear from you,” Carol said.

The low chuckle on the other end of the phone took her back to her early 20s and her life as Natasha Romanova’s sorority sister. “ _I was wondering if I should call. Buck’s been telling me to stay out of it_.”

Carol laughed at that. “Nat, I know we haven’t seen each other in a few years, but unless you got a personality transplant, your husband is a loon.”

“ _He’s convinced that their marks disappeared for a reason and doesn’t want me to fuck with the universe, but I know he’s started to tell Steve to tell Tony that he misses him.”_

Carol sat straight up. “Steve misses Tony?”

_“Like I miss my hips before I gave birth,”_ Nat said with a snort. _“Why, does Tony not miss Steve?”_

“Nat, Tony’s mark never went away. It fades and gets darker sometimes, but it’s never disappeared.”

_“What the fuck.”_

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, a challenge to the universe, and one Carol felt as well.

“Maria and I are convinced we’re all missing something here, that something happened between them we don’t know about because I swear to God there is no way those men don’t belong together and I don’t even know Steve.”

_“I mean, I don’t know Tony either, I just know Pepper and she’s convinced of the same thing. Sarah Rogers is the only one who really knows them both and I know they’ve each worked out some sort of secret keeper agreement with her.”_

“This is asinine.” Carol sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “They really should just talk to each other.”

_“I don’t know about your boy,”_ Nat said, _“but mine makes diamonds look flexible when he’s set his mind to something and he’s also an emotional doormat for people he loves, so we gotta force their hand.”_

“Why now?”

_“Two reasons,”_ Nat answered. _“First, I’m tired of feeling this itch of not knowing something. Steve volunteered Tony after years of telling us that he didn’t really follow Tony’s work or know what was going on, but that motherfucker clearly knew exactly what Tony was working on to blurt like that at the press conference.”_

“Interesting.”

_“Right? And second, he fucking mopes and I hate moping. He mopes on Tony’s birthday, he mopes on the anniversary of the day their mark appeared, he mopes whenever we try to set him up on a date and I’m done with the moping.”_

“So what I hear you say is that you think Tony is the way to Steve’s happiness?”

_“You know I don’t buy the whole ‘there can only be one’ soulmate theory,”_ Nat replied. _“Buck and I have the marks for working together, but I fell in love with him so fast that it wouldn’t matter to me if I had a romantic mark with someone else. The thing with these two numbskulls is that I think they’re supposed to be linked somehow and by denying any link at all, they’re messing with the ancient magic I wasn’t super into believing in until now because weird shit is happening.”_

“Like?”

_“Eliza asked me the other day if she should call him Uncle Tony when she meets him because he’s with Uncle Steve. Carol, I haven’t met the man and the kid… I know that sounds just like a kid thing, but Eliza’s got a weird sense of things.”_

“If your mom gut is going off,” Carol replied, “then I trust it. I just don’t know what we do.”

_“Get them alone in El Paso whenever you guys go,”_ Nat said. _“Lock ‘em in a room, make them share a car, I don’t care, but Steve told Bucky he’s being careful not to be alone with Tony and I think that’s what needs to happen.”_

“That I can do,” Carol said with a laugh. “Now, enough about these idiots. Tell me all about Winnie - is she teething yet?”

_“Oh God, Carol, I forgot what teething cries sound like and now I feel like every time she wails, she’s scraping at my soul.”_

“Monica was the same way,” Carol commiserated. “We tried everything - the gel, the ice, the thingy they suck on, all the tricks, but Mon just wanted to wail.”

_“Motherhood is such a miraculous experience.”_

* * *

“For me, the last candidate is Peter Parker,” Steve said as he took another sip of his soda. “Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Duke in environmental engineering and has a masters in project management from NYU.”

“He’s a fetus,” Tony replied.

“Pot, kettle,” Steve said. “Says he finished Duke at 20 and then did the program at NYU on full scholarship. Works for DeBlasio right now and is definitely poachable.”

“Your fancy government report says that?”

“Nah, I just know people who work for DeBlasio,” Steve smirked and the pair giggled a bit. Politics was small and even though Steve had been in the game for about five years, he basically knew everyone in New York City who had anything to do with running anything.

“Bring him in,” Tony sighed. “See if he wants to live in El Paso for the next six months.”

“Can he work with MJ?” Sharon asked.

The genius’ prickly personality was becoming legendary among Steve’s staff.

“I’m not exactly the picture of emotional intelligence,” Tony replied, “and I manage. But we’ll have her sit in on the interview.”

Shuri made a note in the notebook in front of her. “Okay, so that’s the liaison role shortlist taken care of. I made sure we have the top floor of the Home2Suites for the two weeks we’re there - there are individual kitchenettes in each room so people will not feel pressured to eat out after long days or on whatever schedule they’re on.”

Tony opened his mouth and she pointed her pencil at him. “Including a freezer for your Hot Pockets, yes.”

Steve made a face and Tony shrugged. “Haven’t killed me yet.”

“They’re not food,” Steve complained.

“And yet, I feel full after eating them,” Tony said.

Steve rolled his eyes and signed back some obesenties to Tony who only grinned and downed the rest of his drink. He signed back rapid fire. “If all the coke I did at MIT didn’t kill me, Hot Pockets aren’t going to take me down.”

A look passed over Steve’s face that Tony didn’t know what to do with - but noticed it always happened whenever he referenced their time apart. Tony made a joke about sleeping with the single members of the U.S. Women’s National Team after the World Cup? Face. Tony explained that one of the papers he wrote for CERN was done after a fifth of Glenlivet? Face.

“Okay,” Sharon said, interrupting Tony’s thoughts. “That takes care of the implementation team. Tony, do you need anything else from us?”

Tony shook his head. “Just tell me what days the big wigs are gonna be there so I can tranq MJ and calm her down.”

Steve snorted. “She is not that bad, Tony.”

“No, she’s exactly that bad, it’s just not her fault,” Tony said. “Parents taught her that her autism was something to be ashamed of, so she hasn’t harnessed it for all its potential. We’re working on it.”

“Are all your employees projects of their own?” Shuri asked.

“Aren’t we all, Your Majesty?” Tony raised an eyebrow and deployed his favorite nickname for Shuri. From anyone else, it would be derogatory, but he meant to imply she was secret royalty somewhere and was keeping it a secret from them.

“Ten points for Slytherin,” Shuri responded.

“Balls in all your courts now,” Tony said. “I can get them clean water while we’re trapping them in the detention centers, but you gotta figure out how to get the detention centers shut down.”

“We’re working on it,” Steve sighed.

“How quickly?”

“As quickly as we can,” Shuri said, slightly snappish. “There are restraints -”

“Money? Because I’ll turn over my personal bank account to fund this,” Tony said.

“A few million-”

“Billion,” he interrupted Sharon. “My net worth is estimated at 92 billion. How much do you need and what for?”

The table was quiet and Tony was worried he put his foot in his mouth too far and there would be no turning back. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I’m bullying-”

“You’re not,” Steve said, holding up a hand to interrupt him. “But you just told three incredibly broke public servants that you could buy the City of Sheboygan with change left over and we’re a little shocked.”

“Oh.” Tony felt sheepish. “Sorry.”

Sharon cleared her throat. “You also can’t just hand us money, it’s a whole -”

“Start a think tank,” Shuri interrupted her colleague. “Hire all the best immigration lawyers you can find, turn it into a lobbying group, basically, on behalf of immigration reform and immigrants themselves, and sue the United States.”

“I can do that?”

“Sue the United States?” Steve asked and Tony nodded. “As often as you’d like, technically. It’s just expensive and often futile.”

“Well, thank fuck I’m an eccentric billionaire who doesn’t know better,” Tony said with a grin.

Steve signed something to Sharon so quickly that Tony couldn’t quite follow it so he asked for clarification.

Sharon smirked. “Nothing to worry about, Stark.”

_Oh, then it’s absolutely something to worry about._

* * *

“Why’d you say that,” Steve signed angrily later that day.

“Because you’re being a child,” Sharon signed back. “Headache?”

Steve nodded. “I’d rather turn it off, can I?”

“I think you’re getting yourself in trouble,” Sharon signed once they had sat down and faced each other on the couch in Steve’s office. “He’s going to catch on.”

“Catch on to what?”

Sharon simply stared at him. “That there hasn’t been anyone else but him. He’s going to find out and if you’re convinced that it’ll freak him out, you better either find a boyfriend fast or stop flirting with Stark.”

“I’m not flirting with him.”

“You signed to me, where he could clearly see it you... you just gambled that your right hand was angled enough you could move it fast - and what did you say, Steve? You said that he was cute when he was dreaming. In. Front. Of. Him. Steve, you’re gambling.”

Even though emotions were sometimes hard to convey in ASL, Steve got that Sharon was furious with him loud and clear.

“I’m not.”

“Do you want him to find out that you still have a thing for him?”

“Who said-”

She grabbed his hands to silence him. “I have known you for how long?”

He wrenched them away and signed, “Six years.”

“Six years,” she confirmed. “So I ask again, do you want him to find out that you still have a thing for him?”

His silence was the only answer she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next week when the team all heads to El Paso.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heather accused me of attacking her heart with this chapter, so you've all be warned.

June 2020

_WhatsApp: Brosefs_

_Bucky: I’m telling ya, the Mets have a chance this year._

_Steve: The Mets ain’t had a chance since the 80s. You’re delusional._

_Bucky: Just because you have to pretend to give a fuck about the Nats don’t mean I have to listen to this blasphemy_

_Steve: Shut your mouth, I would never betray the Mets that way_

_Bucky: You know, there’s probably something to be said about the psyche of New Yorkers that we hate our teams, generally don’t believe in them, but will kill anyone who trash talks them._

_Steve: Nah_

_Bucky: Yankees fans think they’re fucking saints_

_Steve: Fair_

_Bucky: So are we going to keep talking about baseball and ignore tomorrow or can I ask about tomorrow?_

_Steve: It’s going to be hell, Buck. That’s all I got._

“James,” Nat said to get his attention. “Are you making Steve talk about important things or can you dad for a minute?”

“He’s maybe about to tell me about the camps, but I can let him stew. What’s up?”

“Eliza is asking if she can meet Uncle Steve’s friend Tony because she has questions for him and this is the fourteenth time I’ve fobbed her off, so it’s your turn,” Nat grinned from the doorway.

_Bucky: I gotta go dad for a minute. Why don’t you spend that time coming up with an answer that includes how you’re going to cope because Nat’s gonna nag me if you don’t._

_Steve: *snort*_

Bucky pocketed his phone and then wandered up the stairs to his personal genius’ bedroom. She was, unsurprisingly, sitting in bed with her nose in a book. “Hey Doolittle,” he called from the doorway to get her attention, “whatcha reading?”

She screwed up her nose in distaste. “This book on vampires that Sariah Mattherson at school gave me and she said it would change my life but it hasn’t, it’s just kind of lame.”

_If my 3rd grader is reading Twilight…_

“Do they sparkle, the vampires?” Bucky said as he crossed the room.

“They do,” Eliza said, “and the girl is so awkward and weird. Why do guys in books always want the girls who are clumsy and awkward? Mom’s not clumsy and you like her.”

He couldn’t fault the logic. “Did you get this one at the library?”

She nodded. “You’re making a funny face, Daddy.”

“Nah,” he said, “it’s just that I would have thought that book would be a little -” if he said ‘old for you’ she’d only read it faster, so he had to be careful here. “What I mean is that-”

“It’s a kissing book, Daddy, I know.”

Change the subject, Barnes. “Did you talk to Uncle Steve today? Mom mentioned something.”

She nodded solemnly. “My class wrote letters to the kids in the kid jail and he is going to take them personally and make sure the kids get them and he promised he’d have them translated, well, the ones that we wrote in English. I wrote mine in English because my Spanish is still not great, I wish it was better like Miguel’s, but they speak Spanish at home and you guys won’t.”

“It’s because I don’t speak it,” Bucky reasoned with a grin. “Puts a damper on being able to communicate.”

“It’s not hard.”

“It is for old, broken brains, sweetheart, but back to Uncle Steve.”

Eliza worried her bottom lip slightly. “Is he going alone?”

“No, he’ll have his whole team with him,” Bucky said.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Eliza said. “It’s going to be hard, and you and Mom always say that when we’re going to do hard things, we should have people we love with us. So who is Uncle Steve bringing?”

Well, he’ll have Tony who he loves so much he can’t even see it, Bucky mentally replied. To his very inquisitive daughter, he said, “he’ll have his friends Miss Sharon and Mr Sam, you remember them?”

“But they’re not family, Daddy.”

“Are you telling me to go with him?”

Eliza contemplated that. “You or the Mr. Tony you all talk about. Who I really want to meet because I have some questions about water stuff. Mom said she’d think about it. Can you help her think faster?”

“You know,” Bucky said slowly, “you’ve been asking about Mr. Tony a lot and you seem to think Uncle Steve and he are something besides work friends. Why is that?”

“Because even if their soulmarks disappeared, they’re still connected,” Eliza said matter-of-factly. “We had soulmate education last year and they told us that if you’re truly not meant to be soulmates any more, you will disappear from each other’s lives totally, like you’re basically dead to each other forever and that is not what happened. There’s a picture of Tony in Grandma Sarah’s house, Daddy.”

The logic of children.

“I know, Doolittle,” Bucky replied, “but they’re still not soulmates anymore.”

“No, they are,” Eliza said simply. “They just forgot how to do it. They’ll remember, that’s why I asked Mom if I should call him Uncle Tony or Mr. Tony.”

“I think Dr. Stark will be good for the first time,” Bucky replied.

“That’s what Mom said.”

“Well, by your theory,” Bucky conceded, “which I do not agree with, Uncle Steve has Mr. Tony with him, so he’s not alone.”

“Good. And you didn’t answer my question about Mom and thinking. I see you, Daddy.”

He rolled his eyes slightly dramatically, which caused her to giggle, and he promised her he’d talk to Nat about it. He then bade his daughter good night and then headed back down stairs to find Nat and fill her in on the conversation.

“I agree with her,” Nat said. “This is too much, they’re too connected, it’s too something.”

There was something she wasn’t saying. “You think it’s not real, the disappearing mark?”

Nat shook her head. “No, I’m not saying that, but maybe something happened and Steve misunderstood? I mean, we’ve seen the scar, it isn’t there, but…”

Bucky’s phone buzzed in his pocket. “That’s Steve.”

_Steve: I made sure to have my own private room - I sometimes share with Sam on these things - because I’ll need to cry loudly and scream and process. The gym doesn’t have a punching bag, but there’s a community one nearby that Sharon arranged me to have access to. And I’m not allowed to take my phone in so I’m not tempted to take photos that I’ll obsess over._

“He actually has thought about how he’ll handle what he’s going to see,” Bucky reported.

“That’s more than he did the first time,” Nat replied.

_Bucky: That’s good, pal. Those are all good things. We’ll make sure the kids are free if you need a serotonin fix._

His fingers paused and Nat snorted. “James, stop being a coward.”

How did she read his mind like that?

_Bucky: And how are you going to cope being so close to Tony for so many days?_

_Steve: I’m fine, Buck._

_Steve: We’re rebuilding a friendship and that’s great. But knock it off._

_Bucky: Buddy, I just don’t think that’s a good strategy._

_Steve: And I said knock it off._

“He’s completely fucked,” Bucky replied as he passed the phone to Nat so she could read for herself.

“Oh, completely,” she affirmed.

* * *

“Have you,” Peter’s voice cracked, “ever done anything like this before?”

It was a soft question, seemingly innocuous, but MJ had a feeling what Peter was really asking. She may not understand people really well all the time, but some emotions she could sense and fear was one of them.

“Our work hasn’t involved anything this intense before,” MJ replied. “Usually I’m in a lab running codes and the most intense part is Tony’s need to listen to AC/DC at volumes that would crush mortal ear drums.”

Peter’s mouth ghosted into a smile. “So are you all not mortal?”

“Nah,” MJ said with a grin, “we’re theoretical scientists with a passion for applied physics. But that wasn’t nearly as easy to fit on a business card, so Tony went with ‘imagineers’.”

Peter nodded and took another sip of his water bottle. The pair were outside the main gate to the detention center in El Paso. Tony, Steve, Carol and Sharon were all inside, while the rest of their teams milled around out of it.

MJ wasn’t sure what to make of the ~~gorgeous~~ slightly scrawny kid from Queens that had been hired to head up the entire implementation program. He’d arrived two days previous and was instructed to hit the ground running on the most audacious project of applied engineering that MJ had witnessed in her personal life. So far, he’d been respectful of both Carol and Sharon (MJ had no time for mansplaining) and had been appropriately awed by Tony but not creepily so (MJ also had no time for worshippers).

“Why’d you apply for the job?” She finally asked, figuring that making small talk right now was probably part of her role in this tense circus.

Peter grinned over at her. “A chance to work with Stark Imagineering and shame the U.S. government? I applied so fast that my thumb nearly broke my phone screen.”

MJ found herself giggling and then, more surprisingly, found that she liked it.

“We’re gonna get them,” MJ said a while later. “We’re gonna get those motherfuckers who did this and we’re going to fire them.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, all these debates and primaries and all don’t matter to me. It’s whoever the Dems nominate versus facism. Pretty clear choice as far as I’m concerned.”

“Thank you,” MJ responded. “My friends are all salty that it’s probably going to be Biden -”

“Please, this is the DNC, of course it’s going to be Biden.”

“- but they’re missing the point.” She hooked a thumb behind her. “That’s the point. Children in cages or another old white guy that’s not great but also, you know, not going to put children in cages.”

“Well, Miss Jones,” Peter said and MJ snorted.

“MJ is fine. I know Captain Formality in there has you all calling us by titles, but MJ is fine.”

“Then it’s Peter on my end,” Peter said.

“Well, Peter, this is gonna be one of Dante’s circles of hell, by all accounts, are you ready?”

“Absolutely not,” Peter replied, “which is why I’ll be the first one through the door when Mr. Stark signals.”

“I just told you to drop the formality.”

“You told me to do it for you, MJ,” Peter corrected with a smirk that affected her knees far too much for her comfort level. “Manners are important to me.”

She was silent for a second before she spoke. “Then make sure to call Sharon Dr. Carter and Tony Dr. Stark. It’s technically both their titles. They’ll tell you not to, but do it anyway.”

“Thanks,” Peter said.

MJ was about to respond when she heard gravel crunch to her left and she turned to see Carol approaching the pair.

“MJ, Peter,” Carol said.

“Ms. Danvers,” Peter responded.

Carol licked her lips as though to hide a smile - a move MJ had seen a thousand times. “It’s Carol, I promise, but they’re ready for you in there. Go put your phones in the lockboxes in Tony’s car and let’s… let’s go bear witness.”

* * *

“Stop fucking with me,” Tony growled at Carol. “When we left the airport this morning, I was told I had my own room and if I wanted to let the new kid bunk with me, that would be fine, or you’d shove him in with one of Steve’s lower lackeys, so explain to me how this happened.”

Carol shrugged, her blaise attitude making him see red. “There was a leak in Steve’s room - a pipe burst and the bathroom is out of commission until at least tomorrow when they can get their maintenance man out here. No other floor is secure, so I can just shove him down to the ground floor, and you are the only one with an empty double bed in your room.”

“You are meddling,” Tony said through gritted teeth. “His mark is gone, Carol.”

“The pipe burst, Anthony,” Carol replied evenly and Tony knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. “I’ve already had his things transferred to your room.”

Tony stared at his second-in-command-but-really-boss for a few beats before he ground out a ‘fine’ and stomped towards the elevator.

_WhatsApp: RhoPepTo_

_Tony: A burst pipe?_

_Tony: Is that the best you can do, Potts?_

_Pepper: I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Tony_

_Tony: I’ve had the worst day. Beyond nightmare. I mean, beyond. And now you’re fucking with my love life._

_Pepper: Tony, I’m serious, I have no idea what you’re talking about._

_Tony: A pipe “burst” in Steve’s hotel room and now he’s sharing with me._

_Tony: and this smacks of your little back channel cabal, fucking with my life_

_Rhodey: Tony. Calm down._

_Tony: Shut up, Rhodey, you know I’m right. Pep’s been talking to Carol and I’ll bet a lot of money Nat too and I’m not a fucking puppet._

_Pepper: I’m sorry you have to share a room for one night with a man you’re in love with and whom you also claim is someone you want to get to know again. I certainly hope you can keep it in your pants._

_Tony: I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, Potts_

_Pepper: And I don’t appreciate being referred to as part of a cabal, Anthony, so we’re all going through things we don’t like._

_Tony: I don’t believe you have nothing to do with this._

_Pepper: Believe what you want, Tony, but I honestly don’t. It’s a burst pipe. Shit happens. Now be an adult and change in the bathroom or whatever._

_Tony: He’s going to see the words._

_Pepper: Then you’ll explain them to him._

_Tony: Why do you think this is all so easy?_

_Pepper: I DON’T. I have told you a thousand times that I know I don’t know how hard this is for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it. You can do hard things, you have done hard things, and you have to continue to do hard things. That’s fucking adulthood, Tony. Welcome._

_Tony: Night, Pepper._

* * *

Pepper looked up from her phone at Rhodey. “I honestly didn’t have anything to do with this.”

Rhodey speared her with a look. “But you know that Nat and Carol probably do.”

Pepper blushed instead of answering, knowing her husband could see right through her.

“It’s his life, Virginia,” Rhodey said softly.

“I can’t see him cry over it any more,” Pepper replied, equally softly. “Not when there’s a possibility it could all be better. If this hurts him more than it helps him, we’ll back off. But both of them are suffering for no reason, Jim.”

“It’s. Their. Lives.”

“No more, I promise.”

Her phone buzzed.

_WhatsApp: Camp Onawanana_

_Nat: Carol meddled._

_Pepper: So I heard. I just got an earful from Tony._

_Nat: I got one from Steve._

_Pepper: We gave them ten years._

_Nat: Exactly what I told Bucky_

_Pepper: Why do men think they can be trusted to be left to their own devices?_

_Nat: Patriarchy._

_Pepper: Ugh._

_Nat: If they can’t have an honest conversation tonight when they’re both rubbed emotionally raw anyway, we’ll give up._

_Pepper: That’s what I promised Rhodey._

_Nat: Carol has Maria’s full support._

_Pepper: Of course she does. Maria’s sensible._

* * *

Tony hadn’t had a panic attack in a long time - probably since the last time he did two lines of coke and then chased it with what he thought was Advil and was, instead, Molly. Pepper was pretty honest that he should have been dead after that stunt and Tony had taken her seriously. So, yeah, long time. But he knew one was building because…

Because he wanted to peel his own skin off with a melon baller from the shame of carrying citizenship to the country whose government did that.

When they were all on the plane to get to El Paso, he’d intentionally avoided Steve for most of it, making sure to talk science as much as possible with Carol and Shuri. But about thirty minutes out, Steve had sat down next to him.

_“It’s going to be awful,” Steve said quietly. “And I’m only using that word because English doesn’t cover what we’re about to see.”_

_“I’ve seen war, Steve, we’ve helped in a lot of refugee camps.”_

_“This isn’t that,” Steve replied, his tone raw. “I thought I had seen everything, everything of how awful humanity could be to each other, I thought I was prepared. But I wasn’t. You walk past an American flag to get in there, Tony, and then some of these conditions make refugee camps look positively five-star. At least there they can see the sun.”_

_“I’ll be fine,” Tony replied, not willing to give pieces of his fear to this man._

_“Of course you will,” Steve said with a chuckle, but it didn’t contain any rancor. “You’re always fine. I’m just saying it’s okay if you’re not. I wasn’t.”_

But Steve was right. It was worse than he could have imagined. The children wailing is what set him off - the idea that the government he paid taxes to used that money to do that. He’d wired the Biden campaign a bunch of money as soon as he’d walked out and sent Kamala a direct text.

_Tony: I know we’re all still pretending you’re not his running mate and he might not get the nomination, but if you don’t destroy that motherfucker and I mean destroy, I’m uncovering long lost Italian citizenship and getting the hell out of Dodge._

She’d texted back a salute GIF.

He’d thrown up twice outside the gates, which he was told was normal, and then ridden back to the hotel in complete silence. He was afraid if he opened his mouth to say anything that he’d sob. Peter and MJ were silent while Carol was furiously typing on her phone, and he had no idea what the other car was like.

And he was just looking forward to being completely alone - maybe even indulging in that old favorite from right after Steve left, crying in the shower - when Carol informed him that his solo room was a thing of the past.

So now he was in a room built for a family with the man who was supposed to be his, and was holding himself together with a safety pin. He was about to say something lame about the Mets’ chances for the pennant or, even worse, the weather, when the aircon made a terrible noise.

_Ahhh_ , he thought, _that I can fix._

___________

Steve had never felt more panicked in his life. Not on that drive to tell his mother. Not on any number of missions in any number of deserts. Not the first time Bucky and Nat placed Eliza in his arms and told him he was her godfather.

No, this special breed of hell was reserved for this moment - where he had to share a room with Tony. They were both clearly trying hard not to talk about the day. Tony had immediately grabbed the television remote upon entering the room.

“It’s really hot in here,” Tony remarked as he flipped through the channels. “I’m going to futz with the aircon.”

“Be my guest,” Steve said. _Don’t make a big deal out of it,_ Steve chastised himself. _He probably just needs something to do with his hands since I dragged him to a hotel with no bar and no one to flirt with._

“I won’t make it too cold,” Tony promised, almost automatically, and Steve nearly winced. A call back to their childhood - where Tony always wanted to make it as cold as possible inside because he was convinced Steve wouldn’t get a fever if it was really cold.

Steve’s body had other ideas, but Tony was stubborn.

“I haven’t run a fever in fourteen years,” Steve replied. “And it’s nearly as hot in here as it is outside, do whatever you need to do.” He paused. “Do you want to talk about today?”

“No.” The answer was abrupt and final, which meant Steve knew what was coming next.

“It’s just that it’s awful, Steve, and I have a pretty large vocabulary and I cannot find words that haven’t already been used for it and the smells, Steve, the smells and those are people and we’re….”

“I know,” Steve replied quietly, willing himself not to move. Everything in him ached to just gather Tony to himself but he knew he couldn’t. Steve didn’t deserve the feeling of calm that would come from having Tony in his arms.

“I know you know, I just…” Tony trailed off for a moment. “I want to castrate every person responsible with a rusty Swiss Army knife that I’ve dragged through sriracha sauce first.”

“Vivid,” Steve replied evenly. “Effective probably, too.”

Tony gave a wry chuckle and went back to the air conditioner unit.

For a while, the only noise that came from Tony’s corner of the room was him cursing at the air conditioner unit. It was muffled, the consonants weren’t clear enough for Steve to make them out, but just the pitch of Tony’s voice was a comfort.

A comfort he didn’t deserve.

He’d flipped out on Nat over text earlier in the evening and she had - predictably - told him to stop being a child and tell Tony how he feels.

_But she has no idea. Once he knows the truth, he’s never going to want to see me again. It’ll be over - this beautiful, hopeful partnership that I’ve fallen in professional love with will be over and those kids will never get water or be reunited with their families and -_

Tony snapped his fingers in front of Steve’s face and his hands started flying.

“Steve, you’re not breathing steady, you okay?”

Steve focused his eyes and stared into Tony’s. Those eyes were home. Still were.

This night was gonna kill him.

“Yeah, Tony,” Steve said out loud with a small grin, “I’m fine. Just thinking about the day.”

Tony looked at him funny and then settled back into his work.

Neither one of them remarked on the fact that in a room that was registering 75F, both of them insisted on long pajama pants and long-sleeved shirts.

“I’ve been looking into foundations and think tanks,” Tony said, spinning around on the floor and Steve knew it was to make sure Steve could see his lips. The implant was wonderful and Steve was so grateful for it, but after long days of having to rely very, very hard on it, it was nice to be able to sink into reading lips or hands.

“You mean Pepper’s been looking into them,” Steve said with a smile and was rewarded with a patented Stark smirk.

“We just said the same thing, Rogers,” Tony said. “Anyway, she’s got a few set up right now and we’re talking to a few lawyers in a few states about where the best place for an HQ is or if we should connect with a university or whatnot. I had no idea how fucked immigration law was.”

“It’s not great,” Steve said. “And not just from this bozo. We’ve been bad at it, basically, forever.”

“I’m learning that,” Tony said and it was a tone that Steve knew well. By ‘learning that’, Tony meant he had spent most waking hours in the past few weeks listening to podcasts and speed reading immigration case law. While his fingers spun holograms to try to finalize the filtration, his brain learned how to make sure the filtration wouldn’t be necessary for very long.

Was it any wonder he loved this man?

“When are you hoping to launch your first lawsuit?”

“Yesterday,” Tony said. “But Pepper actually wants to meet up with Bucky since he knows the Southern District of New York pretty well.”

“He’d love that,” Steve said. “He just wrapped a case he hated, so he’d love to sink his teeth into something new.”

They talked back and forth about what a think tank would look like versus a foundation, which one required more lawyers, and which one required more social workers. They joked about how fast they could hire Eliza to run it, and Tony confessed that he was really antsy to meet Nat and Bucky and their family after years of hearing about them. Steve told him that he was worried about Sarah’s health and that he was pretty sure she was being lazy with her blood pressure medicine, and Tony confessed that he was playing matchmaker between Peter and MJ.

They did this all with a soundtrack of MSNBC playing in the background. Tony would pause a diatribe to address Chris Hayes directly - he always loved talking back to the TV - and Steve would have to bite his lip to keep from grinning. It all felt…right.

Which is why he was absolutely and utterly fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few notes:  
> \- _Twilight_ is classified as 8th grade reading. I was reading 12th grade levels when I was in 4th grade, so I feel pretty confident that Eliza would be on 8th at least.  
> \- If there hadn't been COVID, I'm not sure how the primaries would have gone, but... like Peter said... it's the DNC. I kinda always figured it would be Biden.  
> \- Kamala Harris would be Tony's senator. I think he probably knows her enough to work with her and yell at her because this is my world and I get to think happy thoughts about it. 
> 
> See you next week for what happens when Tony wakes up in the middle of the night and sees some words written on Steve's skin.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had pieces of this chapter written since the outline and I've been dying to share them with you all. Hope they pass muster. 
> 
> Thanks to moody and jeh for their assists on this one and to [Tina](https://thirstinart.tumblr.com/) for the INCREDIBLE ART. She is a *dream* to work with, ya'll, and I can't recommend her highly enough.

There was a loud noise just above Steve’s head and a bright light and he woke up with a start - to find Tony staring at him, having just turned on the wall lamp.

Tony made a noise that Steve assumed was speech so he held up his hand to signal Tony to pause. He flipped on his implant. “Sorry, it’s on now.”

“Good, because there’s no way I can ask what I want to ask with my hands.”

Steve looked down at himself and realized that the undershirt he remembered falling asleep in was gone. In the heat of the room - even the best air conditioner can only do so much with 105F temps - he must have whipped it off in his sleep.

_Fuck._

“That’s my handwriting,” Tony breathes out.

Steve’s heart rate skyrocketed. “Yeah.”

“You never lost our soulmark, did you?”

Steve must not have responded fast enough for Tony’s liking because the other man whipped off his shirt to show a riot of words all over his torso - all in Steve’s handwriting.

“Answer my question, Steven,” Tony growled.

“No,” Steve whispered.

The room was silent - punctuated only by the ragged breaths each of them were taking - for longer than Steve was comfortable with. A silent Tony was a dangerous Tony.

“Why.”

The word was not a question, it was a statement, and Steve closed his eyes for a moment. “For a lot of reasons, Tony.”

“I’m open to a list in any order you choose. Alphabetical, chronologically, by Dewey Decimal System,” Tony snapped back. “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t turn off their faces, I couldn’t… the aircon wasn’t enough. I should have brought a fucking rubix cube or something, I don’t know, but I’m awake and I’m tossing and all of a sudden the light of the clock catches something on your body. It was words and they were red like someone put them there with soldering iron and -”

“Can we not do this now? It’s 2am -”

“-and it’s _ten years_ since we should have had this conversation, so yeah, I’d like to do it right now, my schedule is bizarrely free to hear about why the fucking love of my life lied to me about our soulmarks, Steven Grant, and please tell me that Mama and Buck had no idea you did this because if they did-”

“Ma didn’t find out until two weeks ago,” Steve cut him off.

“Bucky?”

“Still thinks it was the freak occurrence theory.”

Tony was quiet. “I have been a mess for a long fucking time, Steven. I compared everyone I ever met to you, I did every substance I could think of to try to forget you, I worked myself to exhaustion so that I could ignore the Google alerts about you that I could never bring myself to delete, so now I need to know why you stopped loving me.”

“I never stopped that,” Steve said.

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true,” Steve protested. “I did what I thought was best for us because you were about to be… well, you, and I was enlisting to be a jarhead in an unwinnable war and fuck if I was holding you back.”

“Are you goddamn kidding me,” Tony replied in a tone of disbelief. “You made the most important decision of both of our lives for us without talking to me when -”

“I KNOW,” Steve roared. “I know what I did and if you don’t think that I’ve regretted it every single fucking day-”

“You have telephones, Steven,” Tony screamed back, “could you not just pick one up? I still talk to your mother every month, Bucky is married to my best friend’s teenage camp friend, it’s not like our lives have been completely separate. You knew how to get a hold of me, so when did you stop loving me?”

Steve wasn’t sure when he’d started sobbing, but it was somewhere between ‘telephones’ and ‘Buck’ and now it was happening so hard he couldn’t breathe.

Which didn’t stop Tony.

“TEN FUCKING YEARS,” he roared, “of weddings I’ve sat through with soulmates, knowing that mine was still ours and yours was gone because the universe wanted to, I don’t know, have me suffer forever. Ten years of fucking baby showers and… god, do you have any idea how proud of you I was when you won? How many times I phone banked for you? I think we donated a few million, even, because I have never, not for one fucking second, stopped loving you, nor have I stopped dreaming of the day where you’d call me and tell me the mark showed back up.”

“You are so much better than me,” Steve hiccuped. “You always have been.”

That shut Tony up, as though something registered in him that he’d long forgotten.

“In the years we’ve been apart,” Tony said slowly, “have you been to therapy?”

Steve sighed deeply, and shook his head.

Tony pursed his lips, and Steve ached to take Tony’s face into his hands. “So the voice in your head that is loudest, it’s still Joseph?”

“I’m not my dead father’s puppet,” Steve snapped, with more force than he anticipated.

Tony didn’t respond to that. Instead, he put his shirt back on, found a pair of jeans, and grabbed his room key. “I’m going to find out if their promise of 24-hour coffee was real. You get in the shower, now, and wake yourself up. I’ll be back with something and then we are getting to the bottom of this because I deserve the truth and so do you.”

Tony was out the door before Steve could respond. He went to the bathroom and washed his face and then grabbed the pain pills he kept for emergencies when the headache threatened to take over his whole being - like now. But he’d waited long enough and he knew Tony couldn’t do this while trying to remember ASL.

When he was done, he pulled out his phone to text his ma.

_Steve: He saw the words_

_Steve: It’s about 4am your time, so I’m assuming you’re awake or will be soon._

_Steve: Whenever you get this, light some candles, will ya?_

He put his phone back on the nightstand and heard a buzz a few beats later.

_Sarah: Considering I told you to have this conversation weeks ago, I’m not sure you deserve my candles._

_Sarah: But Tony does._

_Sarah: Be brave, boyo. You both deserve the truth._

Steve felt the prickle of tears in his eyes as the sound of the door unlocking rippled through the room. Tony entered and handed Steve a cup.

“They claim it’s coffee, but I think we all know it’s bean flavored water, but as long as it's got caffeine I’ll take it. Start when you’re ready, I’ve waited ten years, I can wait ten minutes.”

* * *

* * *

“My mom and dad were soulmates,” Steve started a few moments later.

“I know,” Tony replied and Steve held up a hand.

“Let me explain, please.”

The tone was pleading and Tony nodded. If he wanted answers, he supposed he needed to give Steve the space to provide them.

“I remember being taught in school that soulmates are inevitable,” Steve continued. “And you and I got talked about a lot as not having a choice in the matter, really, that even if we didn’t have marks, our mothers would have pushed us together. And that always bugged me, because if there wasn’t a mark, I still would have chosen you. I wasn’t in love with you because the universe told me I had to be, I was in love with you because you’re… you.”

Tony had no idea where this was going, but he knew Steve well enough to know it was heading in the self-flagellation direction, so he bunched his fists into the comforter of the bed to keep himself from reaching out.

“Mom and Dad, though, they didn’t choose each other, not really,” Steve continued. “Ma had marks with other people, but when her soulmark showed up with Dad, that trumped all the other ones and she became Joseph Rogers’ wife instead of Sarah McCool. He took her away from everything she knew and dumped her in Hoboken and she was just there. Stuck. And that was before he started drinking.

“And it’s not like she could have left, right? I know what your ma said all those years, but there’s not a judge who’d grant a soulmate a divorce and we all know it. You need big money to make that happen and we never had it. I know Maria cooked most of the meals we ate, I’m not stupid, and I know that a lot of my clothes that Ma quote-un-quote found in the church donation bin were ones your ma bought. If we left, it would have been worse.”

He was quiet long enough that Tony decided to ask a question. “But that’s your parents, Steve, that’s not us.”

“But I’m my father’s son,” Steve snapped and Tony flashed back to a thousand nights in their lives where Joe would find them doing something he deemed lazy and he’d grab Steve by the scruff of the neck and force him to go 'do something'. _Rogers men aren’t lazy,_ he’d say, low enough that Sarah wouldn’t be able to hear. _I know you’re a runt, but that’s no excuse. I don’t want to hear that you can’t breathe, that’s just an excuse._ Whenever Steve would cry, Joe would ask him if he wanted to be Joe’s son or if he wanted to be a loser.

What was a seven-year-old to say with that choice?

Tony opened his mouth and shut it again. He noticed that Steve’s breathing was getting ragged.

“And if I’m my father’s son, then even the bond wouldn’t be enough for me to not treat you like he treated Ma,” Steve continued and all the puzzle pieces Tony had been missing fell into place. Of course Steve would do something boneheaded and sacrificial and near-sighted to save Tony from a pain he thought was inevitable. Of course he would.

God, how Tony loved this infuriating, infantile, insanely good man.

“Steve, you’d never hit me,” Tony said slowly. “I know that like I know that you hate butterscotch and chocolate sauce mixed together in a sundae.”

Steve’s mouth lifted in a small grin. “It makes it all gooey in bad ways.”

“You are not your father,” Tony continued. “You never could be.”

“You don’t know that,” Steve said sharply. “My father was jealous of how popular Ma was around the neighborhood, of how everyone loved to be with her. He was jealous of me, how I took her attention, and… And you were about to become the greatest thing the world had ever seen and if I got jealous and possessive and started to hold you back, God, Tony, I’d never live with myself. So I made the decision that was right, I protected you, I-”

“Broke my heart,” Tony whispered.

“I knew you’d be fine,” Steve continued, and Tony could tell that this was a speech he’d given himself a thousand times before. “You’re lovable and warm and welcoming and generous and I knew you’d find someone to make you happy as you changed the world and then you were! I followed you, you know.”

Steve was crying now, and Tony had a feeling he didn’t even know why. There was an edge of mania to Steve’s voice and Tony had a feeling that this was a decade of bottled emotions spilling into a cheap hotel room in Texas.

“And then, you weren’t fine. Then you were in tabloids and in rehab and… And I realized I made the wrong choice, but then it was too late,” Steve continued. “You hated me, and I deserved it, and what was I supposed to do but let you?”

“You could have talked to me,” Tony said, with a little more anger than he wanted to show. Steve was acting like a wounded animal, which Tony figured he kind of was. There were a lot of emotions happening and Tony wasn’t sure when he could introduce logic to the proceedings.

“How? Hi, Tony, remember me, I fucked up pretty badly, can we still live happily ever after?”

“YES,” Tony said, loudly and forcefully. “Yes, Steve, that is exactly what you say because that’s all I needed to hear! Do you honestly think that I would… Steven.”

Tony collapsed on the bed in front of Steve and grabbed his soulmate’s face with his hands. “Steven Grant Rogers, look at me and listen to me right now. You are not your father’s son, you are your own man, but even if you were someone’s child in the way you’re saying it, you are the proud and worthy son of Sarah McCool. You are kind and fierce and loving and generous and you are the top to bottom, forever and always, love of my fucking life and so I think I know you.”

“But-”

“You stole ten years of our lives from us because of your Irish stubbornness and inability to ask questions and I know that because I have been to therapy and I did figure out how to tell Howard’s voice in my head from mine and I’ve got some pretty good ideas about what Joe sounds like to you, but here’s the magic of us, Steve - I still know you. I’ve never stopped knowing you, never stopped craving you, never stopped… I listen to every single story that Pepper tells me about Nat and Bucky and their family because if they’re your family, they’re mine, too. I am desperate to know Sharon and Sam and Darcy because they’re your team and so am I. Hiring Peter together felt right in a way that made my mark stop itching for the first time in years, Steve. I just…”

Tony leaned in and kissed Steve’s forehead. Leaving his lips against Steve’s face, he murmured, “I just fucking love you, you absolute moron, despite your best efforts, and I chose you. I don’t care about the mark, I’d’ve chosen you if I was marked to Zac Efron, for fucks sake. I chose you.”

“But the mark -”

“The marks are burning because it’s a false choice,” Tony continued as he pulled back slightly but didn’t let Steve go, “I’ll bet you anything. Because you made the choice for both of us, the universe doesn’t count it as a consensual breakup, so as far as it’s concerned, we’re still together.”

Tony scratched his fingers through Steve’s beard and rested his forehead upon Steve’s once again. “Do you still choose me?”

“I never stopped,” Steve whispered.

“Good,” Tony said and captured Steve’s lips in a soft kiss.

One of the fairytales that flies around about soulmates is that when they settle their bond for good - through a public wedding or a private choice - their soulmarks glow. Tony and Steve had both talked it over a lot when they were younger and decided it was bullshit.

Until that night, when they realized it was true.

* * *

“The marks aren’t magic,” Tony said into the darkness. “Your bullshit doesn’t vanish because of that kiss and the fact that we sparkled which we are never mentioning again, like ever.”

“We did not sparkle. Bucky said Eliza’s been reading the sparkly vampire book and I’ve gotten monologues from him about sparkling. We did not sparkle.”

“She is way too young for -”

“Tony.”

“Right,” Tony cleared his throat. “I’m simultaneously furious and sad. I’m furious you stole ten years from us, but I’m sad you thought you had to and I’m never sure what emotion to act on when my biology is telling me to just strip you naked and forget we ever fought.”

“Well…”

“Steven.”

“Right,” Steve said with a chuckle, intentionally copying Tony. “I know I need therapy and Ma made that clear as well.”

“Oh, I’m so glad Mama knows,” Tony said with a sigh. “I’m just… But everyone else we need to tell together. I want us to present a united front on this. I’ve forgiven you in theory and working towards in practice and everyone else’s personal beef with you can be sorted between you and them.”

“Beef, I think, is not what we say anymore,” Steve said.

“Are you taking away my elderly millennial cred?” Tony said, aghast.

“I’ve been informed we say salt now.”

“I’m saying beef,” Tony said decisively. “They’re both stupid, so I’m going with what I know.”

“I love you,” Steve said on a laugh and he heard Tony’s breath catch. Before Steve knew it, Tony had rolled on top of him and was kissing him.

“I have dreamed,” Tony said between kisses, “and dreamed and -”

“Me too.”

“I’m still mad.”

“And sad?”

“And sad.”

“Me too,” Steve confessed. “I’m mad at myself and I’m really sad about how much I hurt you.”

Tony was quiet as he drew Steve’s lips in for a few more kisses before he rolled back off of Steve and settled himself into Steve’s side. “I’m not sure how we tell America about this.”

“Fuck America.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

Steve snorted. “I know, but not right now. They don’t have to be part of this right now.”

“Okay,” Tony said. “I’m mostly just glad I don’t have to hide the words anymore.”

“Same,” Steve confessed.

“They fucking itched,” Tony replied. “And Pep’s kids kept asking about them and it was getting awkward.”

“Not as awkward as when Meghan caught you saying ‘fuck you, McInernany’ written on my elbow,” Steve retorted.

Tony laughed and they spent the rest of the night sharing stories and kisses, both full of joy and pain all at the same time.

“At some point,” Tony whispered around 4:30am, “we do need to talk about how if I ever meet Stephen Miller in person, I will skin him alive with a rusty butter knife.”

“I’m assuming you mean we need to talk strategy because I’m obviously helping.”

“As long as we’re on the same page.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next week for their visit to Sarah's.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they boys face the fallout of their choices.

**July 2020**

Sarah blinked at them from across the table. “So, the ancestors forced your hand.”

Tony could feel Steve squirm slightly next to him, but he clasped his hand over Steve’s knee and pressed his thumb in just slightly. Steve took a breath and answered his mother. “Yes. Yes, they did.”

Sarah was quiet for a few moments longer and Tony made the decision to hold the silence instead of trying to fill it. They’d been at Sarah’s for almost two hours. She’d peppered them with questions, examined all the various scars - most of the words had faded but a few remained - and the renewed soulmarks. She asked probably hundreds of questions and forced them to eat at least four rounds of her shortbread that Tony knew she had stress baked when they said they were coming. But that was all fine, Tony felt. She got to play this however she wanted and Sarah deserved her moment to do so. He’d had his chance to rake Steve over the coals - it was her turn now.

But then, she shifted her eyes to his and his stomach dropped.

“How many years did I tell you to be brave, boyo?” Sarah said with a raised eyebrow. “How many years did I tell you to force _his_ hand, hm?”

Tony gritted his teeth. Steve was supposed to be in trouble here, not him. “If Steve had told me the truth -”

“Yeah, but we all know that when it comes to emotional vulnerability, my son is about as open as a rotten mussel -”

“Hey!”

“- so you could have played your own game, Anthony. The initial separation is entirely his doing. The decade apart is both of yours.”

“Now, Ma,” Steve said, lacing his fingers through Tony’s, “you’re being a little hard on him-”

“No, I’m not,” Sarah said evenly. “You will be stupid again. He will need to chase you into your own head and shout down your loudest demons and if you two are really going to do this, if you’re going to publicly announce it to friends and family and the whole world, then Tony has to recognize that he played his part in keeping youse apart.”

Tony met his mama’s eyes and saw the depths of love and wisdom and frustration in them. Maria was an adequate mother, not great, not terrible - doing her best to keep her own head afloat and them both alive to do much else. The ‘much else’ - the love and tenderness and life lessons - those came from Sarah. She’d become his Mama the night that Steve left, when ‘Mrs. Rogers’ was far too empty and ‘Sarah’ felt shallow. In the last ten years, she’d walked with him through a lot. He’d dragged her with him to rehabs and laboratories all over the world. She’d met Rhodey and Pepper - and been at their wedding - and held all the Rhodes’ children when they were babies.

And it had never truly occurred to him until this moment what keeping his life and Steve’s life separate had truly cost her.

“Oh fuck me, Mama, I’m so sorry,” he said in one breath.

“Language,” both Rogers’ said reflexively and that’s when Tony started crying.

“You sacrificed more than either of us did,” he said through tears and a clogged throat. “We made our decisions and so we could delude ourselves into the idea that… but you… you did… you made… we made your choices for you and you still chose us.”

By the end of his statement, which was drawn out like slowly poured caramel, he was whispering. She reached across the table and clutched his chin, pulling his eyes up to hers. “Of course I did, you blooming idiot. You’re my sons and I love you.”

“That’s an extraordinary feat of womanhood, Ma,” Steve said with a loving chuckle.

“And a completely ordinary act of motherhood,” she replied. The men held that for a few beats - a holy and heavy silence - before she continued. “You both already said therapy, right?”

“Yes,” Steve affirmed. “Separate and together. We’re looking for good fits now.”

Sarah nodded and started ticking things off her fingers. “Okay, so next is to tell Bucky, Nat, Pepper, and Rhodey. Then you tell Carol, Sharon, Sam, and those new kids you’re booth mooning over like protective parents.”

“Peter and MJ?” Tony asked. “MJ’s not new.”

“I notice you didn’t correct me on the mooning,” Sarah said slyly. “But you tell those people in person and together.”

“We already decided that,” Tony said, with a defensive tone in her voice.

“Anthony, you watch your tone. If you think for one minute I’m letting either of you make a decision ever again, you have another thing coming. Your first daughter’s name is Maeve, let’s get that out of the way right now because you’re not cocking up her name like you cocked up your lives.”

Steve grinned. “Been sitting on that one, eh, Ma?”

“For at least six years since I read it in a book,” Sarah said primly. “Now, once Sharon and Carol know, you let them tell you how to tell the public. I don’t care how embarrassing it is for either of you, you will do whatever is best for Steve’s career so you can get those children freed, you hear me?”

Tony licked his lips into a smile. “Actually, Ma, we know the answer to that one already.”

“Oh?”

“We talked on the way here,” Steve said, “and Tony did some digging into the ancient texts on soulmates that the Vatican has.”

“Do I want to know how you can read the digital archives at the Holy See?” Sarah queried.

“You do not,” Tony affirmed.

“And he found that there is myth from around the 9th century that faded soulmarks can reappear if the couple chooses each other anyway.” Steve smiled over at Tony and felt his whole body relax just a little, just enough to make everything feel safe. “So, that’s our official story. That after ten years of thinking we were doing the right thing by the universe -”

“Because that’s only kinda a fib,” Tony said and Sarah speared him with a look.

“- but we love each other just too much and-”

“Chickens, that’s an adorable fantasy that people will buy that,” Sarah said dryly, “but you’re about to launch a thousand conspiracies.”

“Mother,” Tony said, “if you had let us finish.”

“Which we know only about 10% of the population will buy,” Steve said with a grin Tony would categorize as ‘shit-eating’. “The others will either not give a fuck-”

“They’ll be our favorites,” Tony said.

“-or will spin themselves ragged into some sort of homophobic ferver that will keep the Fox News pundits busy while we reunite the families and Tony starts his thinktank to sue the government.”

“Oh, is that happening?” Sarah said brightly. “I’ve always wanted to sue a government.”

“Pepper’s gonna run it,” Tony said. “So text her if you want a job.”

“I’ll learn the tweeter to help,” Sarah said solemnly.

“Before Maeve is born, you’ll need an iPhone,” Steve said. “Granny will need a walking photo album.”

“At the rate you two muppets are moving, that’ll be in 2035, so I believe I have time,” Sarah sassed back. "And I am perfectly content to keep my current grandbabies on the fridge and in my heart. I don't need them in a phone."

Tony snorted which caused Steve to laugh and Sarah to break her composure just a little and... and Tony's soul exhaled even further. 

The three grinned at each other and he was 14 again, sitting at this exact same kitchen table, drinking the same brand of tea, and eating the same shortbread recipe and dreaming of a future that would never not include these two people. He felt the bond between him and Steve warm a little and knew Steve was getting similarly nostalgic.

Soulbonds usually corresponded with marks - words on your skin came with words in your brain (as in, you could occasionally read each other’s minds), and romantic marks came with this inexplicable bond where each part of the pair could feel the combined emotions of them both. So if both of them were feeling the same thing, the bond would feel like a cozy blanket and remind them that they were meant to be.

Tony and Steve had been feeling that warmth since they left El Paso three days prior.

The plane ride home had been weird, but fine. Keeping their renewed bond under wraps had been a test of endurance, but it wasn’t like the marks themselves drove them to hormonal action or anything. They just had to act like nothing had changed - some minor pining, subtle flirting, and avoiding any commentary from their friends and colleagues. Upon landing back in D.C., they had obsentibly headed back to their separate apartments but Tony had told Pepper he was heading to the lab he’d rented for some brainstorming.

Which was accurate.

If by ‘lab’ he meant ‘Steve’s bed’ and by ‘brainstorming’ he meant ‘new ways to make Steve see stars’.

After three days of getting reacquainted while also minding the business of being adults, they’d realized they couldn't put Sarah off any longer and headed for home.

“I have one final request,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, Ma?”

“I want to be there when you tell Eliza,” Sarah replied with a twinkle in her eye.

* * *

_WhatsApp: Brosefs_

_Steve: Can you guys all come a little early to my birthday cookout?_

_Bucky: What’s a little early? Nat was already planning on being there around 4 because she doesn’t trust you with grilling tofu._

_Steve: Your wife._

_Steve: Fine, around 2:30. I need to talk to you and Nat and then the kids._

_Bucky: Stevie, if you’re dying, you fucking tell me now._

_Steve: God, Buck. Nothing like that._

_Steve: But please mention to your therapist that was your first assumption._

_Bucky: The last time you ‘needed to talk’ was when you decided to run for congress. Since you ain’t running for president (yet, cuz you’re broke) then I went the opposite direction._

_Steve: I'm also too young for president._

_Bucky: the current guy doesn’t seem too into the constitution. I figured it was a chose-your-own-adventure thing now._

_Steve: which is why we’re firing him in a few months._

_Bucky: Hear, hear. But yeah, 2:30, we’ll be there._

Steve put down his phone and looked up at Tony. “They’ll be here at 2:30.”

Tony nodded. “Pepper and Rhodey will get here at 3:30, and I’ll get shit forever about telling Nat first.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “And I’ll get shit forever from Nat if I burn her tofu another year, so honestly, they’re both scary. Toss a coin.”

Tony snorted and snuggled a bit closer into Steve. They were sprawled on the overstuffed sofa that Tony had commandeered into his rental lab, planning out their reveals. Sharon and Carol would happen on Friday, so that statements could go out on Sunday afternoon - enough time for the speculating and drama to start but also so that Steve could make one statement to his staff on Monday morning and then tell them all to field questions and get over it.

Amongst those strategy conversations, they’d interviewed two therapists over Zoom, eaten their weight in Thai takeout, and Steve had blown Tony twice. They were exceptional multitaskers.

They were also both not quite ready for anything past hands and mouths. Even then, Tony had stopped Steve twice because he got mad again, or Steve started crying really hard one time over his guilt and they ended up in separate bedrooms at Steve’s. Healing wasn’t linear and they basically hadn’t even started.

“Hey baby,” Tony said softly. “I gotta ask about my birthday gift.”

Steve blew out a breath. “Was it the wrong call?”

“On the day, it really hurt,” Tony confessed. “Now I see what you were trying to do, but you kinda fucked it up.”

Steve kissed the crown of Tony’s head. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know.”

“Do I not get to use that ever again?”

Tony was quiet for a moment. “No, not at all. In fact, I think it means more now, knowing we both held onto it, that it endured the silence.”

Steve let out a breath. “Good, because I have one mark on me that’s not from the universe and it would be really awkward.” He shifted Tony and moved to where Tony could see the right side of his head. He parted his hair and Tony could see a black mark that was shaped like…

“Do you have a flying V tattooed above your implant?”

Steve nodded. “I put it somewhere no one else would see it, but I’d know it was there every moment. Somewhere it was just for me.”

Tony took a shaky breath. “You weirdo. You absolute weirdo.”

“Your weirdo.”

“Damn fucking straight.”

* * *

Bucky felt like someone had punched him in the gut. “What do you mean that you _burned off your soulmark_ ,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Just that, Buck,” Steve said for the third time that afternoon.

“I’m sorry I keep asking the same question but I cannot fathom why -”

“He told us why,” his wife interrupted. “He told us why and if you’re choosing not to listen, that’s not Steve’s problem.”

Bucky gaped at her, but she turned her attention to Tony.

“You accept his apology?”

Tony nodded. “I do.”

“Then we do, too,” Nat said firmly and shot Bucky a look that made him cower slightly. “What’s the public line and what do you want us to tell the kids?”

“We want to keep the fact that I did this to us on a need-to-know basis,” Steve said.

“And who’s in that circle?” Bucky asked as he forced himself to regulate his breathing.

“Ma, you guys, Carol, Sharon, and we’ll tell Pep and Rhodey as soon as they get here,” Steve said. “Everyone else - my staff, Tony’s staff, the kids, the general public - gets the story that there is an ancient magic associated with soulmarks that means they can regenerate if the couple wants them to.”

“What kinda-”

“I found it in the Vatican Archives, James,” Tony said quietly. “So it’s at least a socially acceptable source for myths.”

“Bucky, pal, I told ya,” Bucky said with a grin at the man he’d been eager to meet for a decade. Tony blushed slightly and dipped his head in acknowledgement. It hit Bucky how overwhelming it all must be for Tony - to have to process his own pain but also the familial and public ramifications at the exact same time.

God, Steve was an idiot.

“So what now?” Nat asked.

“Right now in this minute, we figured we’d introduce Eliza to the famous Mr. Tony,” Steve grinned, “but in the what now in general, we’re heading for a lot of therapy as we rebuild a life and hope that the hormones of the soulmark help that process and don’t harm it.”

“Oh, yeah, romantic soulmarks come with all that nonsense,” Nat made a face. Despite Nat and Bucky’s rock solid marriage, their soulmark was actually platonic. One of the billions of people throughout history who proved their marks slightly incorrect - or that their free will was still more powerful than any entity of fate. Nat and Bucky had started out as friends - with exceptionally filthy benefits - and evolved into something deep and solid. They’d actually gotten tattoos over their soulmarks, to signify their own decisions about who they were. None of their children were born with marks and they joked that fate was pissed with them.

“It was a lot lighter before,” Tony said. “I think it’s because we hadn’t fully bonded? Or committed or whatever, but this is a lot.”

Bucky wondered what it was like to feel someone else inside your skin and decided he and Nat won in the end.

“Well, how about I go get Miss Eliza and pry her away from her Gammy Sarah,” Nat said. She rose and crossed the living room to kiss Steve on the forehead and draw Tony up off the couch and into a hug. “Welcome to the family, Tony. Sorry he was an idiot and delayed you a bit.”

Bucky swore he heard Tony gasp and he didn’t blame him. Nat was not liberal with her physical affection. The hug was something.

She wandered off to collect their daughter and Bucky glared at his best friend. Steve held up his hands. “I know, Buck.”

“I had to listen to Eliza for the last five years beg to meet Mr. Tony and you could have saved me from all of that by using your goddamn words?”

Tony snorted. “I’ve wanted to meet Eliza for at least that long, too,” he confessed. “We all could have just been a little more honest and a little less scared.”

Bucky was about to reply when he heard the tell-tale noise of his daughter’s footsteps as she rocketed into the room. He could tell she was about to talk so fast that no words would actually come out, so he looked at her and took a breath - signaling to her that she should breathe, too.

She did and he loved his daughter so much he could have burst on the spot. This little bundle of woman, meeting her hero, and still listening to her dad.

“Dr. Stark, my name is Eliza Barnes and I am very honored to meet you, sir. I have three questions about your water machine. May I ask them?”

Steve rolled his lips to hide a giggle and cut his eyes to Bucky, who mouthed that she’d been practicing.

“Only three, Miss Eliza?” Tony cocked an eyebrow. “I have more questions about it than that.”

Eliza worried her lip for a second and then responded. “I have twenty-seven written in my journal but Mom said I could only ask three without asking you for more of your time.”

Tony threw back his head and laughed and something unraveled within Bucky. “Kid, I want all twenty-seven and I want them now. So why don’t you go get your notebook and I’ll find us some snacks and let’s get to work, okay?”

Eliza’s whole body vibrated as she took off for her bedroom.

“Oh, Miss Eliza?” Tony called and she stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at him and Bucky could tell she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. She was smarter than everyone in her class (and both her parents) and she struggled to both fit in and not be bored. His poor girl was used to people teasing her about this kind of thing but he knew Tony wouldn’t. He just knew.

“Yes, Dr. Stark?”

“It’s Tony for my friends,” Tony said with a smile and Bucky could have kissed him. Eliza’s entire body seemed to glow as she smiled back.

“And it’s Eliza to mine.”

* * *

“You’re good with her,” Bucky said to Tony a few hours later when the whole party was stuffing their faces with corn-on-the-cob, pork ribs, burgers, and all the rest of Steve’s favorite cook-out foods.

“Are there people who aren’t?”

His tone made Bucky stop mid-bite. “Yes.”

Tony sighed and ran his hand over his face. Bucky caught a look at his soulmark and smiled a bit. “Kids never know what to do with different, and smart different is just as bad as dumb different.”

“Stevie told me you had a time growing up,” Bucky said gently, afraid he may have just crossed a boundary of some sort, but Tony’s chuckle relieved his fears.

“That’s kind of him, I was a dick,” Tony said with a laugh. “He was my literal only friend until I went to MIT, fell apart completely, and let Rhodey and Pepper put me back together. I was desperate for affection but had no idea how to get it and I was ashamed of myself for that because if I was so smart, I shouldn’t need anyone else, right?”

Bucky stayed quiet.

“I’m guessing you’ve read all the stories and we don’t need to rehash my journey towards adult enlightenment?”

Then it was Bucky’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, you were pretty hard to avoid for a few years. But I also know enough to know that those stories are probably 80% bullshit.”

“Eh, some are pretty real.”

“The three strippers in Paris?”

Tony grimaced. “Real.”

“The one with Zac Efron?”

“Exaggeration.”

“What about Lizzo?”

“Oh, it would have been an honor, but no,” Tony laughed. “I’ve been single since I got sober, to be honest. But I did almost go to prison for cocaine trafficking because I was an idiot who trusted the wrong people, and I definitely did need three rehab stints to get my head on straight. So a lot of the details may be wrong, but the broad strokes are true.”

“Steve’s got a lot to answer for,” Bucky muttered into his beer bottle as he took a long pull.

“He does,” Tony said, “but Mama Sarah pointed out that I do, too. I could have called his bluff anytime in the last decade and I chose not to for a lot of different reasons. So if you’re gonna keep being judgy about his fuck-up, I’m going to ask you to hold your tongue.”

Bucky was about to speak and then realized what the man had just said. For the first time since Bucky met Steve, Steve wasn’t alone. He didn’t need Bucky to be his voice of reason or have his six because Steve’s soulmate was back.

“Hey, where’d you go, Buckybear?” Tony snapped his fingers in front of Bucky’s face.

“Buckybear?”

“Work in progress,” Tony admitted. “But you got all dopey.”

“I’m glad you’re back, that’s all,” Bucky said.

“Oh,” Tony said softly. “Me too.”

* * *

“You gonna ever walk out on him again,” Rhodey asked.

At the same time Bucky and Tony were having their moment, Rhodey had found Steve in his kitchen.

“Never.”

“I will gladly kill you if you do,” Rhodey said plainly.

“And I’ll help,” Pepper said, walking up behind him. Steve held up his hands.

“I got the shovel talk from Carol already,” he said.

“Carol isn’t his family,” Pepper emphasized. “We love her, but… if you ever intentionally hurt him again, no matter how noble your reasoning, I will flay you alive with my stilettos, do you understand me.”

“You’ll note that wasn’t a question,” Rhodey said.

“Yes ma’am,” Steve said. “You have my word.”

Pepper glared and stomped off. Steve looked at Rhodey, who sighed.

“She’ll come around, eventually,” Rhodey promised. “She’s fucking pissed right now, but she’ll come around. Just show her how much you love him.”

“You trust that I do?”

“No one does what you did - either time - without loving Tony so much you can’t breathe properly without him.”

Steve’s whole body relaxed just a little. Rhodey got it.

“I don’t forgive you yet,” Rhodey continued, “but I’m not going to hold a grudge. That’s why I married Spitfire back there.”

Steve laughed. “It’s going to be messy before it’s better, I think.”

“Good thing you don’t have anything else going on,” Rhodey commented with a sardonic eyebrow raise, which made Steve snort.

“Just helping to restore the very notion of democracy.”

“Yeah, no big.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left, pals. Who's got plot requests?


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are friends - the end of this particular chapter of this particular journey. Folks always ask me if I'm open to expanding AUs and I will state on the record that this is one I can see expanding easily if there's interest. 
> 
> I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of this fic - particularly jeh, heather, and the POTS server - and I hope this (ridiculously self-indulgent ending) has made you all proud. 
> 
> And now...

_**December 2020** _

“STEVEN,” MJ yelled from her corner of the lab. “Where did you put the scissors?”

“I gave them to Peter,” Steve yelled back.

“I gave them to Tony,” Peter hollered.

“I probably gave them to DUM-E,” Tony yelled.

MJ huffed and blew her bangs out of her face. “Jarvis, order enough office supplies for everyone, please.”

“Right away, Ms. Jones,” Jarvis replied.

They were all setting up Stark Imagineering’s newest lab - a sprawling complex at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard. Tony and Steve had waited for their therapist’s okay for Tony to move to the East Coast, even though he had offered the third night they were back together. Just before Thanksgiving, she gave it, on the condition they continue both individual and couple’s counseling.

So now, Tony Stark was once again a resident of Brooklyn and figured his company should be as well. Bringing MJ along to help him staff the space was a no-brainer; besides her budding something with Peter, he had a fiercely protective streak and he wanted to make sure she thrived.

Jane and Bruce stayed in California, where they’d continue to work on environmental tech. The Brooklyn branch would begin to concentrate on smart home technology - how to create tech to enable more people with learning challenges or on the autism spectrum to live on their own. Tony hoped to expand it to dementia patients, but that was a ways off.

“TONY,” Steve yelled from his corner and MJ’s mouth quirked into a grin. In her life before she interviewed for Tony, being able to call a sitting congressman ‘friend’ wasn’t something she’d ever anticipated. Now, not only did she get to call Steve a friend, he’d slotted himself into acting like both her and Peter’s older brother. They got advice - even when they didn’t want it - support - even when they thought they didn’t deserve it - and mocked lovingly all the time.

But the yelling.

“Get off your ass and go talk to him,” MJ bellowed back. “Jarvis, can you mute them all?”

“With apologies, Ms. Jones, I have not found a way to terminate any verbal expulsions from Sir’s mouth, so I doubt I’d have success with Congressman Rogers’.”

“Community college,” Tony yelled. “Red Hook Community College, J.”

“I tremble with fear,” Jarvis replied dryly and MJ swallowed a giggle.

She was about to reply when she felt a hand on her hip. “Hey, they forgot to order lunch again. Wanna walk to Landolfi’s and get some stuff?”

She smiled and leaned back slightly. “Yeah.”

Peter kissed her temple and they headed for the elevator, letting the other men know where they were going.

“Pickles, MJ, are the devil’s work,” Tony called.

“So you’ll get extra on yours,” she called back.

Yeah, this was a pretty good life.

* * *

_**January 2021** _

“Don’t cry,” Sharon whispered as they walked towards the floor and saw who was walking towards them.

The bells had rung, signaling the opening of the Congressional session and Steve was making his way to the House chamber for the second year of his first term. He remembered everything about this particular day last year, but the emotions were completely different. Last year he was nervous and anxious and had been grateful to several of the younger members of the Democratic caucus - especially the ladies - who had made sure to make him feel welcomed and wanted. This year he was solid in his thoughts and ready to watch (some of) his new colleagues take their oath.

Tony had wanted to be around for this day, telling Steve he’d just be at Steve’s apartment, waiting for him to come home, but Steve had told him to stay in Brooklyn. He should have known Tony would still make sure Steve felt special.

“Congressman Rogers.”

“Vice President Elect Harris,” Steve greeted, unable to keep the smile off of his face.

“I’m glad I ran into you,” she replied with a twinkle in her eye and motioned to one of her staff, who handed Steve an official looking portfolio. “This is my draft of the bill I’m encouraging Senator Casey to put onto the agenda as soon as we open session. A very intense birdie told me to let you see it first, because you wanted to make sure you could get it through the House, too.”

Steve gulped. “I’m not… I don’t have…”

“Mr. Rogers,” her voice went low, “I think you are underestimating yourself. I have known your soulmate for many years and I will tell you that he gets things done and I do not believe the universe would have paired him with someone who did not operate the same way. Joe will sign this - just get it through the House for us, will you?”

“I just want the families back together,” Steve said, a lump in his throat.

Vice President Elect Harris looked at one of her staffers. “Marjorie, can you make sure Congressman Rogers has an hour of my time in our first week of official business?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Steve gaped slightly at her.

“First we overturn the policies, then we build new ones that anticipate facism and prevent it, and then -”

“Then we redefine America,” Steve finished for her.

“See you in a few weeks, Congressman. Have a good first day,” she replied with a smile and went down the hall.

Steve stood, dazed, until Sharon poked him in the ribs. “You have roll call.”

“I just -”

“I know,” she smiled. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and fished it out.

_WhatsApp: Flying V_

_Tony: I don’t like Section 4B.2.3. You said something a few weeks ago that makes me think that won’t work for the sea borders._

_Steve: I’ll take a look, she literally just handed me the folder._

_Tony: Sorry. Excited._

_Steve: You arranged that, didn’t you?_

_Tony: I custom built the VPN their house runs under so no one could hack her kids’ information. We get along._

_Steve: I knew you knew her, I just didn’t realize how much_

_Tony: I have called in exactly one political favor from her and you’re staring at it._

_Steve: What other favors have you called in?_

_Tony: Gross, Rogers._

_Steve: Low hanging fruit, Stark._

_Tony: I love you, go change the world through bureaucracy._

_Steve: I love you, go change the world through wires._

* * *

_**October 2021** _

“So we’ve filed?”

Pepper smiled so broadly that her face looked like it split in half. “Yes, as of two hours ago, we have officially sued both the United States Government for past crimes against humanity and private citizen Donald J. Trump on behalf of the families separated at the border.”

Tony fist pumped the air.

“The government case will most likely get thrown out,” Pepper warned. “It’s symbolic more than anything now that the Court agreed to hear the ACLU case.”

“I know,” Tony said, “but the other one?”

“He doesn’t have the cash to bury us,” Pepper said with a shrug of one shoulder. “Between your personal assets, the leverage of SI, and all the private funding that we secured for Pamilya… I mean, he has no cash.”

“Getting slapped with fourteen lawsuits the day after you leave office is a bit of a financial downer,” Tony said, with a hint of glee in his voice.

The pair were in Pepper’s office at the Pamilya Family Foundation, founded by Tony and a few friends of his in October of 2020. Using the closest pronunciation they could find of the Mayan word for ‘family’, Pamilya’s aim was systemic immigration reform. They set up a philanthropic arm to help organizations doing direct practice, but it’s main aim was to get together all the best policy thinkers and create pragmatic plans to untangle the partisan and xenophobic system that had built itself haphazardly over the course of America’s history. In doing so, they’d advocate for appropriate reparations, beginning with the families separated at the border.

They figured they’d start small, so they sued Donald J. Trump, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump for $75M each.

Shuri had helped them staff it, while Sharon and Pepper worked together to structure it as a hybrid of a think-tank and a foundation. Their first hire had actually been Shuri’s wife Okoye and the second had been Bucky - who was eager to leave his role at a small firm handling mostly estate law. His first order of business was to add Portuguese to his language repertoire and Tony had nearly cried the first time he saw a Brazilian family spoken to in their native tongue. The mother cried and handed Bucky her baby so she could hug her husband and Tony didn’t know how Bucky hadn’t dissolved in that moment.

Dreams, Tony learned, did come true. And the more of his that did, the more determined he was to make sure that was true for as many humans as possible.

“Changing subjects,” Pepper said, “have you thought about my offer?”

Tony nodded. “Very seriously, and Steve wants to wait until after the election to talk further.”

Pepper laughed. “I should have thought of that. He’s polling at, like, 80%, so it didn’t even occur to me that he’d be nervous.”

“Tempting the wrath of the whatever,” Tony said with a grin. “My boy is a superstitious weirdo.”

“Well, his is a walking disaster, so you balance.”

“I love you too, Pep.”

* * *

_**November 2022** _

“Where is he?!”

“Eliza,” Bucky’s voice followed hers. “Inside voice.”

“But I’m so excited, Daddy, how can I use the inside voice and be excited?”

“Doolittle, you’re the genius, you figure it out.”

Tony and Steve smiled at each other over the head of the sleeping child in Steve’s arms. Eliza had been begging to meet their son since he was still in the womb - she wanted to be the first kid to welcome them to the sprawling clan they’d built. Steve and Tony had promised that would be the case and she’d been waiting impatiently for the first two week’s of the kid’s life.

She appeared at the doorway of their bedroom with a large smile on her face and a reverent look in her eyes. “Is that him?”

Tony patted the bed beside him and the girl scrambled up to lean over the baby. “Eliza, meet Charlie. Charlie, meet Eliza.”

Charlie yawned but looked right at her, causing Eliza to squeal with glee. “He already loves me.”

“Of course he does, Lovelace,” Tony said, kissing the crown of her head. “You’re Eliza.”

In the few years since Eliza and Tony had become acquainted, the girl had blossomed. Whenever someone was mean to her for her brain, she’d text Uncle Tony and Uncle Tony would tell her the story of some incredible woman from history who was also too smart for her own good and how that woman had changed the world. It had driven Tony into more history books than he’d ever read, but damn had Eliza fallen in love with the practice. Especially when Tony called her by the last name of someone they’d talked about.

She looked at Charlie and then back at Bucky and then back at Charlie.

“You can ask them,” Bucky encouraged and Tony could hear a chuckle in his voice.

“Can I hold him?” she whispered.

“Of course,” Tony said. “Can you go sit in the special chair?”

She nodded solemnly and bounded from the bed to the fluffy armchair they’d set up for visitors that lived in the corner of their room. Bucky picked Charlie up from Steve’s arms, kissed his forehead himself, and then placed him into Eliza’s eager arms. He instructed her patiently on how to hold the baby and Tony’s whole being felt at peace. The soulbond nearly exploded with joy and warmth and he leaned back into Steve as they watched their formerly favorite child hold their new one.

“Okay Charlie,” Eliza started saying. “Or, wait, this is serious, so okay, Charles Gordon Stark-Rogers, my name is Elizabeth Catherine Barnes and I am not really related to you, but I love you and that’s what matters.”

Tony felt Steve take a swift breath and knew his husband was crying.

“Your daddies are great, so you’ll be good there, and your mom, who you’re going to call Aunt Pepper and I’m sure someone will explain that to you soon, she’s also very smart and very nice and so I’m sure you’ll be kind which is good because my daddy always tells me that being kind is the most important thing we can be, even more important than smart.”

Tony cut his eyes to Bucky, who was wiping something from his.

“I have so many adventures planned for us, but you’re still really little, so we’ll wait a bit,” Eliza said pragmatically and Tony held back a snort. “But I remember when my sister Winnie was your size and she just slept a lot, but now she runs everywhere and gets into all my stuff, so hopefully you’re more respectful.”

Tony clasped his hand over his mouth to hold back the laugh that time. Lord, did he love this girl.

“But finally, as the ambasdored for all the kids, I want to welcome you to our family. We are very, very glad you are here and we love you.” She ended her pronouncement with a kiss to his forehead and sat for a few minutes, simply staring at Charlie with her eyes full of wonder.

Tony leaned back into Steve and tried to freeze this moment forever, because it may be one of the most perfect ones he’d ever had.

* * *

_**January 2035** _

“Uncle Steve,” Eliza said pragmatically, “this is the next logical step.”

He snorted. “I have been in congress for 15 years, Eliza, the next logical step is to _stay_ in congress.”

She shook her head emphatically. “The next logical step would be senator, but we have some good ones right now. You could do governor, but you don’t actually know anything about New York State -”

“Hey, I know things.”

She pierced him with a glare. “What’s the population of Syracuse?”

He frowned at her.

“Around 142,000 without students,” she crowed.

“Okay, okay, you made your point,” Steve grumbled, “but that’s actually the reason that I think governor is the next step.”

Eliza chewed the end of her pen - a habit Steve had been trying to break since he hired her five years previous - and looked thoughtful. “Okay, I’ll put out some test polls.”

He grinned at her. “Wouldn’t a gubernatorial campaign be better for your PhD anyway? It’s less time wasted in travel and you can still head to the library when you need to.”

Now it was Eliza’s turn to make a face. “Ugh, you’re right.”

“He always is, dear,” Tony said as he breezed into the study. “Except when I am.”

“Of course.” The girl’s mouth twitched as though she was holding back a smile and Steve winked at her.

“Hey Ginsburg,” Tony addressed Eliza, “can you give us a minute? If you’re bored, I think Charlie, Sarah, and Marjorie are all upstairs watching something that sounded Korean.”

She nodded and gathered her things, leaving the men alone.

“Governor?” Tony asked.

Steve nodded. “She’s gonna get some polls.”

“Her PhD project is going to be getting you elected as Governor of New York,” Tony repeated.

“Well, her initial proposal was President, so I actually think we talked her down.”

“Your mother is going to have ideas about this,” Tony said.

“My mother has had ideas about every aspect of our lives forever,” Steve said with an eye roll. He made a grabby hands motion for Tony and drew the smaller man into his lap. “What brings you to my lair in the middle of the afternoon?”

Tony yawned. “MJ and Peter are doing orientation for the new round of interns today and -”

“And you’ve been banished.”

Tony scowled at Steve and Steve pressed a kiss to his lips. “You get too excited, babe, you know that. MJ has to scare them first so you guys get rid of the people who just applied to meet you.”

“I know,” Tony grumbled. “When do you need to get the train back to Washington?”

Steve checked his watch. “About four hours.”

“All three of our children are occupied,” Tony said, getting up off of Steve’s lap and pulling at his tie. Steve laughed and followed his husband up to their room, their soulbond warm and sparkly. For despite what Tony said on their first night back together, their marks actually sparkled quite frequently. Sarah assured them that the ancestors foretold such bonds - that they’d be particularly strong and stable. Tony still claimed he hated it, but Steve knew there were pictures on his phone of both their marks at full sparkle.

“Hey,” Steve said as he shut the door behind them. “Thanks for giving me a second chance.”

Tony kissed him. “Thanks for asking for one.”

“I love you.”

“Yeah, Sparkles, me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked the story, I'd love to know! Kudos and comments are life giving. If you're not sure what to say in the comment, know that I take keyboard smashes and emojis as full love. So, if you liked it more than just a kudos, dropping a ":heart:" is great and I thank you in advance.
> 
> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Put on the Suit Stony Server ](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or the [STB Enthusiasts Stuckony](https://discord.gg/ktXHUb4) one.  
>   
> Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a [fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.  
>   
> 


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